This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Michigan. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are women who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Firsts in Michigan's history

Lawyers

First female: Sarah Kilgore Wertman (1871) First female (earned LL.M. degree): Theresa Doland (1917) First African American female: Grace G. Costavas Murphy (1923)

List of first women lawyers and judges in Michigan

State judges

First African American female: Geraldine Bledsoe Ford (1948) in 1967

First female (justice of the peace): Phoebe Ely Patterson in 1919

First female (probate court): Ella Eggleston in 1919

First female (Michigan Supreme Court): Mary S. Coleman in 1972 (1972) First female (Michigan Supreme Court; Chief Justice): Mary Coleman in 1979 First (Hispanic American) female (Michigan Court of Appeals): Dorothy Comstock Riley in 1976 First Hispanic American female (Michigan Supreme Court): Dorothy Comstock Riley in 1982 First Hispanic American female: Patricia P. Fresard in 1998 First African American female (elected; Michigan Court of Appeals): Karen Fort Hood in 2002 First Muslim American female: Mona K. Majzoub in 2004 First Arab American (female): Charlene Mekled Elder in 2006 First Asian American (female): Shalina D. Kumar in 2007 First African American female (Seventeenth Circuit Court): Christina Elmore in 2019 First Palestinian American (female): Yvonna Abraham in 2021 First African American female (Michigan Supreme Court): Kyra Harris Bolden in 2022 First Hispanic American female (Chief Judge; Third Circuit Court): Patricia P. Fresard in 2022 First tribal (female) citizen from the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (Michigan Court of Appeals): Allie Greenleaf Maldonado in 2023

List of first women lawyers and judges in Michigan

Federal judges

First African American female (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan): Anna Diggs Taylor (1957) in 1979 First openly lesbian female (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan): Judith Ellen Levy (1996) in 2014 First Iraqi Chaldean American (female) (United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan): Hala Y. Jarbou in 2020 First South Asian (female) (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan): Shalina D. Kumar in 2021 First African American female (United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit): Stephanie D. Davis in 2022

List of first women lawyers and judges in Michigan

Attorney General of Michigan

First female: Jennifer Granholm (c. 1987) from 1993 to 2003

First openly lesbian female: Dana Nessel in 2018

Solicitor General of Michigan

First Muslim Arab American (female): Fadwa Hammoud in 2019

United States Attorney

First Muslim American (female): Saima Mohsin in 2021

Assistant United States Attorney

First female: Ella Mae Backus in 1923

Judge Advocate General

First female: Rosemarie Aquilina (1984)

County Prosecutor

First female: Emelia Christine Schaub in 1936

First African American female: Kym Worthy in 2004

Political Office

First female (Governor of Michigan): Jennifer Granholm (c. 1987) from 2003 to 2011 First Muslim American female (Michigan Legislature): Rashida Tlaib (c. 2004) from 2009 to 2014