Lisa Loo

Firsts in Arizona's history

Lawyers

First woman: Sarah Herring Sorin (1892)

First Hispanic American woman: Mary Stella Cota-Robles (1940)

First African American woman: Jean Williams (1949)

First woman to serve as the chief staff attorney for the Supreme Court of Arizona: Sarah D. Grant

First woman to start a practice on Arizona Indian Reservation and serve as general counsel to the Havasupai: Martha Blue (1967)

First Asian American woman: Roxanne Song Ong (1979)

State judges

First female justices of the peace: Nellie T. Bush and Emeline Ferguson in 1914

First woman to unsuccessfully run for court superior court judge: Gertrude Converse in 1948

First woman (Arizona Superior Court): Lorna E. Lockwood (1925) in 1950

First Latino American woman (reputed): Anita Lewis Chávez (1947)

First woman (chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court): Lorna E. Lockwood (1925) in 1961

First woman (Arizona Court of Appeals): Mary M. Schroeder in 1975

First African American woman: Jean Williams (1949) in 1977

First Asian American woman: Roxanne Song Ong (1979) circa 1986

First African American woman (justice of the peace): Pamela Gutierrez in 1994

First Native American (female) elected to the Arizona Superior Court: Gloria J. Kindig in 1996

First Asian American woman (Arizona Superior Court): Rosa Mroz in 2004

First Latino American woman (Arizona Court of Appeals): Patricia A. Orozco (1989) in 2004

First openly lesbian woman: Tracey Nadzieja in 2018

First Navajo woman (chief justice of tribal high court): Claudine Bates-Arthur (1970)

Federal judges

First Latino American woman (U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona): Mary H. Murguia (1985) in 2000

First Native American (Hopi) woman (U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona): Diane Humetewa (1993) in 2014

First South Asian (female) (United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit): Roopali Desai in 2022

Attorney general of Arizona

First woman: Janet Napolitano (1983) from 1999-2003

Assistant attorney general

First woman: Pearl Collier in 1936

United States attorney

First woman: Mary Anne Richey (née Reimann) in 1960

First Native American (Hopi) woman: Diane Humetewa (1993) in 2007

Assistant United States attorney

First woman: Mary Anne Richey (née Reimann) around 1954

County attorney

First woman: Rose Sosnowsky Silver in 1969

First Latino American woman: Patricia A. Orozco (1989) in 1999

First Navajo (female): Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren in 2024

Assistant county attorney

First woman: Loretta Savage Whitney in 1943

Political office

First openly bisexual woman (elected to the U.S. Congress): Kyrsten Sinema (2005) in 2013

State bar of Arizona

First woman (president): Roxana C. Bacon in 1991

First openly lesbian woman (president): Amelia Craig Cramer in 2012

First Asian American (female) (president): Lisa Loo (1988) in 2016

First Latino American woman (president): Jessica Sanchez in 2022

Firsts in local history

Donna Grimsley: First woman to serve on the Apache County Superior Court, Arizona (2003)

Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren: First Navajo woman to serve as the Apache County attorney (2024)

Ann Littrell: First female to serve on the Cochise County Superior Court in Arizona

Helen Colton: First female judge in Coconino County, Arizona (1919)

Ann Kirkpatrick (1979): First female deputy county attorney for Coconino County, Arizona

Daisy Flores: First female county attorney in Gila County, Arizona

Monica Lynn Stauffer: First female to serve on the Superior Court of Greenlee County, Arizona (1998)

Jessica Quickle: First female judge in La Paz County, Arizona (2018)

Anita Lewis Chávez (1947): Reputed to be the first Latino American female lawyer in Maricopa County, Arizona

Gloria Ybarra: First Hispanic woman to serve on the Maricopa County Superior Court, Arizona (1985)

Sarah D. Grant: First woman to serve as the presiding criminal judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court

Rosa Mroz: First Asian American woman to serve on the Maricopa County Superior Court (2004)

Barbara Rodriguez Mundell: First Hispanic woman to serve as the presiding judge of Maricopa County, Arizona (2005)