Albania Erifili Bezhani (1952): First Albanian female lawyer. She graduated and practiced law in France before being convicted by Albania's Communist Regime. Natasha Sheshi: First female to serve as a Judge of the Constitutional Court of Albania (1992) Flutura Kona: First (female) appointed as the State Attorney General of Albania (2001) Ina Rama (b. 1972): First female to serve as the Prosecutor General of Albania (2007–2012) : First female justice appointed as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Albania (2008–2013) Erinda Ballanca: First female to serve as the Ombudsman for Albania (2017) Vitore Tusha: First female to serve as the President of the Constitutional Court of Albania (2019)
Andorra Rosa Ferràndiz: First (female) notary in Andorra (1998) Sonia Artal Conesa (2013): First female lawyer of Spanish nationality to practice in Andorra Maria Teresa Armengol: First female to serve as a member of the Superior Council of Justice of Andorra (2005) Laurence Burgogue-Larsen: First female appointed as a Judge (2012) and President (2014) of the Constitutional Court of Andorra Canòlic Mingorance: First female elected in respect of Andorra to serve as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (2025)
Austria
Marianne Beth (1928): First female to earn a law degree (1921) and become a lawyer in Austria Johanna Kundmann and Gertrude Jaklin (née Sollinger): First female judges in Austria (1947) Margarete Haimberger-Tanzer: First female to serve as a criminal judge in Austria (1950) Gerda Meissl: First female prosecutor in Austria (upon becoming a public prosecutor in Vienna in 1951) Ingrid Petrik: First female to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Administrative Court of Austria (1986) and serve as its Vice President (1986) and President (1988) Ilse Kellner: First female to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Austria (1987) Lisbeth Lass: First female appointed as a Judge of the Constitutional Court of Austria (1994) Christine Stix-Hackl: First Austrian (female) to serve as the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (2000) Maria Berger: First Austrian female to serve as a Judge of the European Court of Justice (2003) Birgit Langer: First female to serve as the Vice President of the Supreme Court of Austria (2005) Irmgard Griss: First female to serve as the President of the Supreme Court of Austria (2007–2011) Brigitte Bierlein: First female to serve as the Advocate General in the Procurator's Office at the Supreme Court (1990), Vice-President (2002) and President of the Constitutional Court of Austria (2018) Margit Kraker: First female to serve as President of the Court of Auditors of Austria (2016) Margit Wachberger: First female to serve as the Head of the General Procuratorate of Austria (2023)
Belarus Olga Filippovna Sukhanova: First female to serve as the Chairperson of the Supreme Court of the BSSR (1936) Isabella Martsinovich: First female to earn a Doctor of Laws (1969) and become a law professor (1971) in Belarus Lilia Vlasova and Natalia Kozyrenko: First female lawyers to establish a private law practice in post-Soviet Belarus (1990) Valentina Ivanovna Miroshnik: First Belarusian female to serve as a Judge of the Economic Court of the Commonwealth of Independent States (1992) Rimma Ivanovna Filipchik, Podgrusha Valentina Vasilyevna, and Kenik (Khoma) Ksenia Ivanovna: First females to serve as Judges of the Constitutional Court of Belarus (1994) Natalia Iosifovna Andreichik: First female to serve as the President of the Belarusian Republican Bar Association (1997) Olga Gennadyevna Sergeeva: First female to serve as the Deputy Chairperson of the Constitutional Court of Belarus (2012)
Belgium
Marie Popelin: First female to earn a doctorate in law in Belgium in 1888, but denied the right to practice as a lawyer Paule Lemy and Marcelle Renson (1922): The first women who took the oath of lawyer in Belgium Geneviève Janssen-Pevtschin (1937): First female judge in Belgium (upon her appointment as a Judge of the Brussels Court of First Instance in 1948) Odette Virlée-Leclef: First female to serve as the Chairperson of a Bar Association in Belgium (upon becoming the Chairperson of the Dinant Bar in 1968) Lucie Deltour: First female to serve as the president of a Belgian court (1977) Cecile Draps: First female appointed as a lawyer at the Court of Cassation of Belgium (1980) Irène Pétry: First female to serve as a Judge (1984) and President (1991) of the Court of Arbitration of Belgium (Francophone Group) [renamed as the Constitutional Court of Belgium in 2007] Anne Thily: First female appointed as an Attorney General for a Belgian Court of Appeal (upon her appointment to the Liège Court of Appeal in 1996) Beatrijs Deconinck: First female justice to serve as the First President of the Court of Cassation of Belgium (2019) Hilde François: First female to serve as the Senior President of the Court of Audit of Belgium (2023) Ann Fransen: First female federal prosecutor in Belgium (2024)
Bosnia and Herzegovina Mira Gavrilović: First female lawyer and judge in Bosnia and Herzegovina when the country was part of Yugoslavia Azra Omeragić: First female to serve as a Judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the post-Dayton period (1998) Meddžida Kreso: First female to serve as a Judge and President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2004) Ljiljana Mijović: First female in respect of Bosnia to serve as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (2004) Amila Kunosić-Ferizović: First female to serve as the President of the Bar Association of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2008) Gordana Tadić: First female to serve as the Chief State Prosecutor of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2019)
Bulgaria Vera Zlatareva (1945): First female lawyer in Bulgaria Neviana Hristova: First female lawyer to become a prosecutor in Bulgaria (1953) Milena Zhabinska: First female to serve as a Judge of Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria (1991–1994) Yordanka Hadzhineva: First female to serve as a member of the Supreme Judicial Council of Bulgaria (1991) Snezhana Botusharova: First female elected in respect of Bulgaria to serve as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (1998–2008) Anya Dimova: First female appointed as the Appellate Prosecutor of the Supreme Judicial Council of Bulgaria (2004) Daniela Dokovska: First female to serve as the President of the Supreme Bar Council of Bulgaria (2008) Tsanka Tsankova: First female to serve as the Acting Chair of the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria (2012–2013) Maya Manolova: First female to serve as the Ombudsman for Bulgaria (2015) Pavlina Panova: First female to serve as the Chair of the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria (2021) Galina Zaharova: First female to serve as the Chairperson of the Supreme Court of Cassation of Bulgaria (2022)
Croatia Mara Ilić (1929): First female lawyer in Croatia Miroslava Vekić and Erika Kocijančić: First females to serve as Judges of the Supreme Court of Croatia upon the court's creation in 1990 Nina Vajić: First female in respect of Croatia to serve as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (1998) Emilija Rajić (1973) and Jasna Omejec (1985): First females to serve as Judges of the Constitutional Court of Croatia (1999) Jasna Omejec (1985): First female to serve as the Constitutional Court of Croatia's President (2008–2016) Branka Ćiraković: First female to serve as the Acting President of the High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia (2008) Tamara Laptoš: First female to serve as the Director of the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (a specialized body within the State's Attorney Office of the Republic of Croatia; 2014) Zlata Hrvoj-Šipek: First female to serve as the Attorney General of the State's Attorney Office of the Republic of Croatia (2020) Tamara Capeta: First Croatian (female) to serve as the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (2023) Iva Markotić Bagarić: First female to serve as the President of the Croatian Bar Association (2024)
Cyprus Stella Soulioti (1951): First female lawyer in Cyprus. She later became the first female Law Commissioner (1971) and Attorney General of Cyprus (1984). Gönül Başaran Erönen (1975): First female judge in Cyprus (upon her appointment as a Judge of the District Court of Cyprus in 1980) Ermioni Markidou: First female lawyer to run to become President of the Cyprus Bar Association (1985) Efi Papadopoulou (1970): First female appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Cyprus (2004) Persephone Panagi: First female to serve as the President of the Supreme Court of Cyprus (2020)
Northern Cyprus Shefika Hassan Hilmi Durduran (c. 1970s): First Turkish Cypriot woman to have registered to practice law in Northern Cyprus Gönül Başaran Erönen (1975): First female appointed as a Justice of the Northern Cyprus Supreme Court (1994) Emine Dizdarlı: First female Ombudsman of Northern Cyprus (2015) Narin Ferdi Şefik: First female to serve as the President of the Northern Cyprus Supreme Court (2015)
Czech Republic Anděla Kozáková-Jírová: First female to obtain a legal diploma in the Czech Republic in 1923. She became the country's first female notary in 1928. Matylda Mocová-Wíchová (1928): First female lawyer in the Czech RepublicSome sources identify Anny Maass as becoming the first woman lawyer in the Czech Republic in 1938. Maass was stripped of her right to practice law due to her Jewish background. Zdeňka Patschová: First female judge in the 1930s when the country was a part of Czechoslovakia Viera Strážnická: First female to serve as a Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (1991–1992) Iva Brozova, Eva Zarembová, and Ivana Janů: First females appointed as Judges of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic respectively (1993) Ivana Janů: First female to serve as the Vice President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. In 2001, Janu became the first Czech (female) appointed as an ad litem judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Kateřina Hornochová: First female to serve as a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic when the court was restructured in 1993 Bohumíra Kopečná: First female to serve as the Supreme Public Prosecutor of the Czech Republic (1994) Eliška Wagnerová: First female to serve as the President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic (1998-2002) Michaela Bejčková, Miluše Došková, Lenka Kaniová, Lenka Matyášová, Milada Tomková, Eliška Cihlářová, Brigita Chrastilová, Dagmar Nygrínová, Marie Souckova, Marie Turkova, Ludmila Valentová and Marie Žišková: First females to serve as Judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic (2003) Monika Novotná: First female to serve as the Vice-President of the Czech Bar Association (2019) Kateřina Šimáčková: First female in respect of the Czech Republic to serve as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (2021)
Denmark
Nanna Kristensen-Randers: First female to obtain a legal diploma in Denmark in 1887 Henny Magnussen (1909): First woman to be permitted to work in the high courts of Denmark. Nanna Kristensen-Randers, who received a legal diploma in 1887, was not authorized to work in the country's high courts but was restricted to the lower courts. Elisa Ussing (1909): First female temporarily appointed as a Judge in the Østre Landsret (One of the high courts of Denmark; 1933). She was officially appointed to the aforementioned court in 1939. Ragnhild Fabricius Gjellerup: First female judge in Denmark (1934) Ingeborg Hansen: First female lawyer to practice before the Supreme Court of Denmark (1943) Bodil Dybdal: First woman appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Denmark (1953)