LibGuides: Nevada Women's History: Nevada Women and the Law

Women Firsts in Nevada Law

Timeline of Women's Firsts in the Nevada Judiciary

1893: Laura Tilden became the first woman to pass the bar exam in Nevada.
1898: Georgia Johnson was the first female lawyer known to practice law in Nevada and the first female lawyer that was officially signed in and admitted to practice in federal district court.
1902: Felice Cohn was the first Nevada-born woman admitted to the Nevada Bar.
1912: Anna Warren became the first female lawyer to serve in a federal judicial capacity (U.S. Commissioner).
1918: Edna Covert Plummer was the first female lawyer to serve as District Attorney (Eureka County).
1920: Ruth Averill was the first female lawyer elected to the Nevada Legislature.
1965: Rose Bird became the first female lawyer to serve as a Supreme Court of Nevada law clerk.
1977: Miriam Shearing was the first female Justice of the Peace in Clark County.
1980: Hon. Phyllis Atkins was the first female U.S. Magistrate Judge.
1982: Patty Cafferata was the first woman elected to a constitutional office (Nevada State Treasurer).
1982: Miriam Shearing was the first woman elected as a judge for the District Court in Nevada.
1987: Frankie Sue Del Papa was sworn in as Nevada’s first female Secretary of State.
1988: Janette Bloom became the first female lawyer to be the Clerk of the Court for the Supreme Court of Nevada.
1989: Franny Forsman was the first female public defender for the District of Nevada.
1990: Frankie Sue Del Papa was elected as the state’s first female Attorney General.
1992: Hon. Miriam Shearing was the first female to sit on the Supreme Court of Nevada.
1993: Kathryn Landreth became the first female U.S. Attorney for Nevada.
1994: Margo Piscevich was elected as the first female president of the State Bar of Nevada.
1997: Hon. Miriam Shearing was the first female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada.
1998: Hon. Johnnie Rawlinson was appointed as the first female African American U.S. District Court Judge in the state of Nevada.
2000: Hon. Johnnie Rawlinson was the first Nevada female lawyer to be appointed and confirmed as a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
2019: The Supreme Court of Nevada has its first female majority comprised of Justice Kristina Pickering, Justice Lidia Stiglich, Justice Abbi Silver, and Justice Elissa Cadish.
2022: The Supreme Court of Nevada held its first hearing with an all-women panel comprised of Justice Kristina Pickering, Justice Abbi Silver, and Justice Elissa Cadish.
2022: Justice Patricia Lee becomes the first African American woman and the first Asian American to serve as a Nevada Supreme Court Justice.
2023: The Nevada Court of Appeals has its first female majority comprised of Judge Bonnie Bulla and Judge Deborah Westbrook.
2025: Chief Judge Bonnie Bulla becomes the first female Chief Judge of the Nevada Court of Appeals.