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Previous Margaret Brent Recipients

Previous Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award Recipients

Honorees receiving the Margaret Brent Award have achieved professional excellence in their field by:
  • Influencing other women to pursue legal careers,
  • Opening doors for women lawyers in a variety of job settings that historically were closed to them and/or
  • Advancing opportunities for women within a practice area or segment of the profession.

The Margaret Brent Awards are named for the first woman lawyer in America.  She arrived in the colonies in 1638.  She was a master negotiator, an accomplished litigator, and a respected leader. She was involved in 124 court cases over eight years and won every case. In 1648, she formally demanded a “vote and voice” in the Maryland Assembly, which the governor denied. Over 250 years later, Harper’s magazine noted: “By this action, Margaret Brent undoubtedly placed herself as the first woman in America to stand for the rights of her sex."  See this video about Margaret Brent's life to understand why it is so critical that our honorees carry on her legacy!

For more information, email [email protected].

2023 Honorees

2022 Honorees

2021 Honorees

2020 Honorees

2019 Honorees

2018 Honorees

2017 Honorees

2016 Honorees

2015 Honorees

2014 Honorees

2013 Honorees

2012 Honorees

2011 Honorees

2010 Honorees

2009 Honorees

2008 Honorees

2007 Honorees

2006 Honorees

2005 Honorees

2004 Honorees

  • Special Award: Hauwa Ibrahim (PDF), Human Rights Attorney, Lagos, Nigeria, the first woman attorney in Nigeria and lead defense counsel in the globally publicized Sharia "death by stoning" case of Amina Lawal in Nigeria
  • Marina Angel (PDF), Professor of Law, Temple University School of Law, Philadelphia, PA
  • Teveia R. Barnes (PDF), President, Lawyers for One America, San Francisco, CA
  • Linda A. Klein (PDF), Managing Partner, Gambrell & Stolz, LLC, Atlanta, GA
  • Catherine A. Lamboley (PDF), Senior Vice-President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Shell Oil Company, Houston, TX
  • Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal (PDF), South Carolina Supreme Court, Columbia, SC

2003 Honorees

  • Hon. Martha Craig Daughtrey, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Nashville, TN
  • Charlye O. Farris, Law Office of Charlye O. Farris, Wichita Falls, TX (deceased)
  • Joanne Garvey (PDF)Partner, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP, San Francisco, CA
  • Colleen Khoury, Dean, University of Maine School of Law, Portland, ME
  • Michele Coleman Mayes (PDF)Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Pitney Bowes, Stamford, CT

2002 Honorees

  • Annie Brown Kennedy, Partner, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy and Kennedy, Winston-Salem, NC (deceased)
  • Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton, United States House of Representatives, Washington, DC
  • Myrna Sharon Raeder (PDF), Professor of Law, Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles, CA
  • Judith P. Vladeck (PDF), Partner, Vladeck Waldman Elias & Englehard PC, New York, New York, NY (deceased)
  • Hon. Rya W. Zobel, U.S. District Judge for the State of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

2001 Honorees

  • Laurel Bellows (PDF), Partner, Bellows & Bellows, Chicago, IL
  • Irma Herrera, Executive Director, Equal Rights Advocates, San Francisco, CA
  • Hon. Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, Special Counsel on Human Rights, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., New York, NY
  • Hon. Mary Schroeder (PDF), Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Phoenix, AZ
  • Marna Tucker, Partner, Feldesman, Tucker, Leifer, Fidell & Bank LLP, Washington DC

2000 Honorees

  • Sheila L. Birnbaum (PDF), Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, New York, NY
  • Shirley M. Hufstedler, Senior Counsel, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, Los Angeles, CA (deceased)
  • Hon. Judith S. Kaye (PDF), Chief Judge, Court of Appeals of the State of New York, New York, NY (deceased)
  • Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, DC
  • Dovey J. Roundtree, General Counsel, National Council of Negro Women, Charlotte, NC

1999 Honorees

  • Prof. Barbara Allen Babcock, Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA
  • Carol E. Dinkins (PDF), Partner , Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P. and former Deputy Attorney General of the U.S., Houston, TX
  • Justice Carol W. Hunstein, Supreme Court of Georgia, Atlanta, GA
  • Pauline A. Schneider, Partner, Hunton & Williams, Washington, DC
  • Hon. Norma L. Shapiro (PDF), U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (deceased)

1998 Honorees

  • Special Award: Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, Supreme Court of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Maureen Kempston Darkes, President, General Motors of Canada, Ltd., Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson (PDF), Louisiana Supreme Court, New Orleans, LA
  • Irma L. Rangel, State Representative, Texas House of Representatives, Austin, TX (deceased)
  • Judith Resnik (PDF), Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale U. Law School, New Haven, CT
  • Judith A. Winston, former Executive Director, The President's Initiative on Race, Washington, DC

1997 Honorees

  • Special Award: Roberta Cooper Ramo, Past President, ABA, Albuquerque, NM
  • Evelyn Gandy, First Woman Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS (deceased)
  • Jamie S. Gorelick (PDF), Vice Chair, Fannie Mae and former Deputy Attorney General of the U.S., Washington, DC
  • Antonia Hernandez, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Los Angeles, CA
  • Hon. Joan Dempsey Klein, Presiding Justice, California Court of Appeals, Los Angeles, CA
  • Drucilla Stender Ramey, Executive Director and General Counsel, Bar Association of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

1996 Honorees

  • Hon. Rosemary Barkett (PDF), U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, Miami, FL
  • Justice Beryl Levine, North Dakota Supreme Court, Palo Alto, CA (retired)
  • Nina Miglionico, Partner, Miglionico & Rumore, Birmingham, AL (deceased)
  • Lynn Hecht Schafran (PDF), Director, National Judicial Education Program/NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, New York
  • Patricia Schroeder (PDF), U.S. House of Representatives, Denver (retired)
  • Keynote Speaker: Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations; in New York, NY

1995 Honorees

1994 Honorees

1993 Honorees

  • Special Award: Hon. Janet Reno, U.S. Attorney General, Washington, DC (deceased)
  • Hon. Betty Weinberg Ellerin (PDF), Associate Justice, Appellate Division, New York, NY
  • Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, DC
  • Elaine R. Jones, Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, New York, NY
  • Justice Joyce L. Kennard, California Supreme Court, San Francisco, CA
  • Esther R. Rothstein, Partner, McCarthy and Levin, Chicago, IL (deceased)

1992 Honorees

1991 Honorees