List of first women lawyers and judges in New Mexico

This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in New Mexico. 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 New Mexico's history

Lawyers

First female admitted: Henrietta Hume Pettijohn Buck (1892) First female (actively practice): Nellie C. Brewer Pierce (1908) First Hispanic American female: Betty Ann Camunez (1972) First Navajo (female): Claudeen Arthur (1974) First Pueblo female: Carol Jean Vigil (c. 1977) First undocumented female: Jazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz in 2017

State judges

First female: Olga Melinda Victoria Miller in 1910 First female (district court): Mary Coon Walters (1962) in 1972 First female (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Mary Coon Walters in 1978 First Mexican American female (Second Judicial District): Patricia A. Madrid (1973) in 1978 First female (Chief Judge; New Mexico Court of Appeals): Mary Coon Walters in 1982 First female (New Mexico Supreme Court): Mary Coon Walters (1962) in 1984 First Latino American female (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Christina Armijo (1975) from 1996-2011 First Native American (Pueblo) (female): Carol Jean Vigil (c. 1977) in 1998 First African American female (district court): Angela Jewell in 1999Upon Jewell’s appointment as a Judge of the Second Judicial District Court in New Mexico in 1999 First female (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): Pamela B. Minzner (1972) in 1999 First Hispanic American female (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): Petra F. Jimenez Maes (1973) in 2003 First openly lesbian female (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Linda Vanzi in 2010 First female (Seventh Judicial District): Mercedes C. Murphy in 2014 First female (Sixth Judicial District): Jennifer Delaney First African American (female) (New Mexico Court of Appeals): Shammara Henderson in 2020 First openly lesbian (Chief Justice; New Mexico Supreme Court): C. Shannon Bacon in 2022Wilhelm, T., & Vining, R.L. (2023). Administering Justice: Placing the Chief Justice in American State Politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/book.112439.

Federal judges First female (Navajo Nation Judicial Branch): Marie Roanhorse Neswood from 1976–1989 First (Latino American) female (U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico): Martha Vázquez (1978) in 1993

Attorney General of New Mexico

First Mexican American female: Patricia A. Madrid (1973) in 1999

Assistant Attorney General of New Mexico

First female: Shirley Crabb Zabel in 1961

United States Attorney

First female (Acting): Ruth Cooper Streeter in 1969Several sources consider Ruth Cooper Street the first female prosecutor in New Mexico.

District Attorney

First female: Margaret Weldon Lamb (1969) from 1978-1980

Political Office

First Hispanic American female (Governor of New Mexico): Susana Martinez (1986) in 2011 First Hispanic American female (elected from the Democratic Party as the Governor of New Mexico): Michelle Lujan Grisham (1987) in 2018

State Bar of New Mexico

First African American female admitted: Barbara Brown Simmons (c. 1974) First female president: Amanda L. Ashford in 1990 First Latino American female president: Mary Torres in 2002 First African American (female) president: Aja N. Brooks in 2025

Firsts in local history

Barbara Brown Simmons (c. 1974): First African American female graduate from the University of New Mexico School of Law [Bernalillo County, New Mexico] Kari Brandenburg: First female District Attorney for Bernalillo County, New Mexico (2000) Kea Riggs: First female district court judge in Chaves County, New Mexico Esther Smith Van Soelen: First female lawyer in Clovis, New Mexico [Curry County, New Mexico] Olga Melinda Victoria Miller: First female judge in Doña Ana County, New Mexico (1910) Nancy Beard: First female Magistrate Judge in Eddy County, New Mexico Edith Gutierrez: First female (non-attorney) judge in Silver City, New Mexico [Grant County, New Mexico] Bettye Dean: First female magistrate in Lincoln County, New Mexico (1983) Angela "Spence" Pacheco: First female to serve as the judicial district attorney in Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe Counties, New Mexico (2008) Brenna Clani-Washinawatok: First Native American (female) appointed as Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District of New Mexico (2025) [McKinley and San Juan Counties, New Mexico] Irene Saiz Mirabal-Counts: First female to serve as a Magistrate Judge in Otero County, New Mexico (2016)

List of first women lawyers and judges in New Mexico

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