On Wednesday, the TBA rallied its past, current and future female presidents for a one-hour virtual conversation to share their experiences and war stories and to honor female lawyers who have impacted the profession. The discussion opened with a tribute to the late Judge Pamela Reeves, the first woman to serve as president of the TBA, who was a mentor, leader and friend to so many. “She never forgot those who helped her along the way,” Judge Cynthia Wyrick said. Panelists also shared stories of non-traditional paths to becoming a lawyer; how they overcame challenges; and identified challenges that still exist within the profession. “We’ve come a long way, but one of the biggest challenges is unconscious bias. Women have a different perspective to bring to the table,” Michelle Greenway Sellers said. TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson served as moderator with former TBA presidents Wyrick, Jackie Dixon, Gail Vaughn Ashworth, Kathryn Reed Edge and Marcy Eason; TBA Vice President Tasha Blakney; TBA President-elect Sherie Edwards; and current TBA President Sellers. Watch the program here for free.

In honor of Women’s History Month, the TBA has rallied its past, current and future female presidents for a one-hour conversation on their experiences, influences and the impact women have made on the legal profession. The virtual panel will take place on March 24 from 3 to 4 p.m. CDT. TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson will moderate the panel, which will include: former TBA presidents Sarah Sheppeard, Cindy Wyrick, Jackie Dixon, Gail Ashworth, Marcy Eason and Kathryn Reed Edge; TBA Vice President Tasha Blakney; TBA President-elect Sherie Edwards; and current TBA President Michelle Greenway Sellers. Register now.

The legal profession in Tennessee has a storied history of strong women who broke down the barriers that stood between them and the practice of law. Early examples of those trailblazers include Lutie Lytle and Marion Griffin.

Lytle secured many “firsts” in her legal career: first Black woman to earn a law degree in the South; first woman, of any color, to be admitted to Tennessee’s bar; first African American female member of a national bar organization. Though Lytle was the first woman admitted to the state bar, she taught at Central Tennessee College’s law department instead of actively practicing. She later moved to Topeka, where she became the first Black woman admitted to the Kansas bar and became a dedicated pro bono lawyer whose practice was focused on fighting the oppression of women and African Americans. Russell Fowler’s 2018 article for the Tennessee Bar Journal, “A Woman of Many Firsts,” tells of how Lytle passed an oral bar exam and earned her admission to the state bar in a time when the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that women were not qualified to be lawyers.   

Several years after Lytle was admitted to practice, Marion Griffin began her seven-year battle for admission to the state’s bar. Her petition to be licensed, In Re Griffin, 71 S.W. 746 (Tenn. 1901), was dismissed 3-2 by the Tennessee Supreme Court on common law grounds. In 1907, Griffin persuaded the General Assembly and governor to pass a statute allowing women access to the bar. She would later become the first woman elected to the Tennessee House and she practiced law in Memphis for more than 40 years. Featured in the Tennessee Bar Journal’s January 2011 issue, Sam Elliott’s article, “The Progress of Women Lawyers,” has more on Griffin.

The good work of Lytle and Griffin opened the door for women to practice law in Tennessee and set the stage for more trailblazers to follow. Tennessee Bar Journal Editor Suzanne Craig Robertson details the lives and work of early women lawyers in the state in “It’s Not Just for White Men Anymore” from the TBJ April 2005 issue and in “50 Years of Pioneers: Early Women in Tennessee Law” from the July 2001 issue.

The ABA Judicial Division is presenting “Judicial Milestones in the Quest for Women’s Equality” on March 26 at 11 a.m. CDT. The program will feature a diverse panel of female judges who will discuss challenges on the bench and offer insights on their achievements and more. The program is free of charge. Register online

In honor of Women’s History Month, the TBA has rallied its past, current and future female presidents for a one-hour conversation on their experiences, influences and the impact women have made on the legal profession. The virtual panel will take place on March 24 from 3 to 4 p.m. CDT. TBA Executive Director Joycelyn Stevenson will moderate the panel, which will include: former TBA presidents Sarah Sheppeard, Cindy Wyrick, Jackie Dixon, Gail Ashworth, Marcy Eason and Kathryn Reed Edge; TBA Vice President Tasha Blakney; TBA President-elect Sherie Edwards; and current TBA President Michelle Greenway Sellers. Register now.

Today the Tennessee Bar Association salutes the six women who serve and have served on the Tennessee Supreme Court: the Hon. Martha Craig Daughtrey, former Justice Penny White and former Chief Justice Janice Holder, and current justices Cornelia (Connie) Clark, Sharon G. Lee and Holly Kirby. Their early career plans were not to become lawyers — they considered teaching, nursing, accounting, and becoming a Pan Am flight attendant, according to a recent panel discussion — because they said there were few to no women lawyers to serve as examples for them at that time.

Daughtrey was the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, in 1990, following a string of “firsts,” including her unprecedented appointment to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in 1975. After the high court, she served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, where she is currently a senior judge. “Prior to Judge Daughtrey’s appointment, the perspective of approximately one half of the citizens of Tennessee was not taken into account on the Tennessee Supreme Court,” Chief Justice Bivins said at the unveiling of her portrait. “She was the trailblazer to bring the perspective there that has now become commonplace on our court.”

Justice White has served as a judge at every level of the court system in Tennessee: as the first female circuit judge in the First Judicial District, the second woman to serve on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals and the Tennessee Supreme Court. She is now UTLaw’s Elvin E. Overton Distinguished Professor of Law. Justice Holder, the third woman to serve on the Tennessee Supreme Court, was the first woman to serve as chief justice, a role she held 2008 – 2010. Justice Clark was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2005 and was elected to full eight-year terms in 2006 and 2014. She served as chief justice 2010-2012, becoming the second woman in Tennessee history to serve in that role. Justice Lee was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2008 and retained by the voters in 2010 and 2014. She served as chief justice from 2014 to 2016. Justice Kirby was appointed in 2014, having served for almost 19 years on the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

March is Women's History Month and today is International Women's Day. Women have played an important role in leading the Tennessee Bar Association during the past three decades and more women continue to join the leadership ranks. There are currently women in six of the top leadership posts in the association: President Michelle Greenway Sellers of Jackson, President-elect Sherie Edwards of Brentwood, Vice President Tasha Blakney of Knoxville, Immediate Past President Sarah Sheppeard of Knoxville, Treasurer Mary Dohner Smith of Nashville and House of Delegates Speaker Meredith Humbert of Kingsport. In addition, the TBA Young Lawyers Division is led by Jackson attorney Terica Smith and a number of sections and committees have female chairs. All of them follow in the footsteps of strong women lawyers who have led the TBA in past decades, starting with the late Pamela Reeves, who was the TBA’s first female president when she was sworn into office in 1998. Read more about Reeves and the other leaders now.