Women Judges

Jeanine Pirro is an American TV host and author. Over the years, she has made important contributions to The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, a syndicated morning talk show. As a former prosecutor and New York State judge, Jeanine Pirro played an important role in several cases involving crimes against the elderly and domestic abuse.

Sonia Sotomayor, the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of America, entered the record books when in August 2009 she became the first Hispanic and the fourth woman to be appointed to the court. She’s a strong defendant of the rights of accused and has raised her voice against misdemeanors by the police and the prosecutors, and abuses in prisons.

Sandra Day O’Connor is a retired attorney who became the first woman to serve as the associate justice of the Supreme Court of the US when she took office in 1981. While serving as the associate justice, O’Connor was considered one of the most powerful women in the world. In 2009, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Judith Sheindlin is a prosecution lawyer, television personality, and author. Since 1996, she has been presiding over her own arbitration reality court show Judge Judy, which has won four Daytime Emmy Awards. The longest-serving judge in the history of the courtroom-themed program, Judith Sheindlin was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for her work.

The fourth woman to become part of the Supreme Court of the United States as its member, Elena Kagan was nominated by Barack Obama in 2010 to serve as an Associate Justice of the Court. She played a major role in the Cooper v. Harris case by writing the majority opinion of the case.

Carrie Lam is a Hong Kong politician who has been serving as the Chief Executive of Hong Kong since 2017. From 2007 to 2012, she served as the Secretary for Development. From 2012 to 2017, Lam was the Chief Secretary for Administration. A controversial leader, Carrie Lam's administration witnessed the criminalization of the Hong Kong National Party.

A Holocaust survivor, Simone Veil had lost her father, mother, and brother to Nazi concentration camps. She grew up to be a magistrate and became the first woman president of the European Parliament. She had also been an able health minister and rallied for abortion rights of French women.

Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, is a British judge. In 2004, she became the first woman to be appointed as a Law Lord in the House of Lords. In 2017, Brenda Hale became the first woman to serve as the president of the United Kingdom's Supreme Court, a position which she served until her retirement in 2020.

Louise Arbour is a Canadian lawyer, jurist, and prosecutor. She made history when she indicted Slobodan Milošević for war crimes; Milošević became the first sitting head of state to be summoned before an international court. Arbour's attempt to indict Bosnian Serb war criminals inspired a 2005 TV film titled Hunt for Justice, where Louise Arbour was played by Wendy Crewson.

Born into a family of lawyers and being the daughter of a High Court judge, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was destined to take up law as a profession. She not only became the fourth female High Court judge but was also the first female Lord Justice of Appeal.

Navi Pillay is a South African jurist known for serving as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. She is of Indian Tamil origin and was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa. She has also served as the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Francesca Morvillo was an Italian magistrate. In 1992, Morvillo became the first and only woman magistrate to be assassinated in Italy; she was killed alongside her husband Giovanni Falcone by the Sicilian Mafia. Her funeral was aired live on national television and a day of mourning was declared by the Parliament.

Roma Mitchell was an Australian lawyer and judge. She became the first woman to hold a number of positions in Australia, including the country’s first female judge. She was also the first woman to be a Queen's Counsel and the governor of an Australian state. She was a pioneer of the Australian women's rights movement as well.