This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Hawaii. 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 Hawaii's history
Law School
First Hawaiian Nisei female law graduate: Patsy Mink (1953) in 1951
Lawyers
First female (prior to overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii): Almeda Eliza Hitchcock (1888) First female (sign the “Roll of Attorneys” for the federal district court): Elizabeth Helena Ryan (1896) in 1900 First female (practicing in the Territory of Hawaii): Marguerite Kamehaokalani Ashford (1916) First Asian American female: Sau Ung Loo Chan (1942) First Japanese American female: Patsy Mink (1953) First Samoan-born female: Saisamoa F. Grey Price (2017)
State judges
First female (Commissioner of Private Ways and Water Rights): Emma Kaili Metcalf Beckley Nakuina from 1892-1907 First female (Hawaii Supreme Court): Carrick Hume Buck (1921) in 1935 First female (district magistrate): Edna Jenkins in 1937 First female: Carrick Hume Buck (1921) in 1934 First Asian American female: Marybeth Yuen Maul circa 1957 First female (appointed; Supreme Court of Hawaii): Rhoda Valentine Lewis (c. 1929) in 1959 First female (family court): Betty Vitousek in 1970 First female (circuit court): Marie Milks in 1984 First African American female: Sandra A. Simms in 1991
First female (Second Circuit Court): Harriet L. Holt in 1990
First openly lesbian female (Hawaii Supreme Court): Sabrina McKenna (1982): (2011)
Federal judges
First Asian American female (U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii): Susan Oki Mollway (1981) in 1998
Attorney General of Hawaii
Corinne K.A. Watanabe (1974): First female to serve as the Attorney General of Hawaii, though for a partial term (1985-1987) Margery Bronster (1982): First female to serve a full term as the Attorney General of Hawaii (1995-1999)
United States Attorney
First female: Florence T. Nakakuni in 2009
Assistant United States Attorney
First female: Carrick Hume Buck (1921) in 1925
Political Office
First Asian-born (Japanese descent) female (senator): Mazie Hirono (1978) in 2012
Hawaii Bar Association
First female president: Sherry Broder (1975)
Firsts in local history
Carrick Hume Buck (1921): First female to serve as the Assistant District Attorney and Deputy City and County Attorney for Honolulu City-County, Hawaii (1925) Jean Vaughan Gilbert (1944): First female to serve as the Honolulu City-County Attorney Camille A. Nelson: First (African American) female to serve as the Dean of the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law (2020) Edna Jenkins: First female to serve as the district magistrate for Makawao, Hawaii (1937) [Maui County, Hawaii] Linda Breslau Berg: First female lawyer in Maui [Maui County, Hawaii]