A History of SMU Law Women
1925 Erin Bain Jones ’28 enrolls in first law school class at SMU and becomes first woman to graduate from SMU School of Law
1949 Patsy Smith ’49 graduates from SMU School of Law and becomes one of the first women attorneys in Lubbock
1954 Louise Raggio ’52 becomes the first woman assistant district attorney in Dallas County
1955 Ruby Braden Curl becomes first African-American student admitted at SMU School of Law
1959 Frances Spears Cloyd ’59 becomes first woman to earn an L.L.M. degree from SMU School of Law
1961 Earldean V.S. Robbins becomes first African-American student to graduate SMU School of Law
1961 Adelfa Botello Callejo ’61 becomes first Hispanic woman to graduate from SMU School of Law, as well as first Hispanic woman to practice law in Dallas
1967 Led by State Bar of Texas Family Law Section chair and alum Louise Raggio ’52 and SMU Law Professor Joseph W. McKnight, the Marital Property Bill is enacted into law, enabling women to conduct certain financial and business transactions without their husbands’ permission.
1968 Joan Tarpley Winn ’68 graduates SMU School of Law and becomes the first African-American woman to practice law in Dallas County
1970 Beverly Carl becomes first woman tenured full professor at SMU School of Law
1975 Five SMU Law women law students who were denied summer clerkships in favor of male students with inferior grades filed suit against law firms they had applied to at the time. Chief Judge Barbara Lynn ’76 was one of those five students. Four of the five law firms settled and they soon had women lawyers at their firms.
1978 Joan Tarpley Winn ’68 becomes the first African-American woman to be appointed to a district court
1981 Sharon N. Freytag ’81 becomes first woman Editor-in-Chief of the SMU Law Review (formerly The Southwestern Law Journal)
1983 Annette Stewart ’66 becomes first woman appointed to the Dallas Court of Appeals
1985 Harriet E. Miers ’70 becomes first woman to serve as Dallas Bar Association President
1988 Barbara Culver ’51 becomes the second woman appointed as a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court
1992 Illona Sheffey Rawlings becomes first African-American woman to serve on the faculty
1992-1993 Harriet Miers ’70 becomes first woman to serve as State Bar of Texas President
2004 Rhonda Hunter ’80 becomes the first person of color to serve as Dallas Bar Association President
2011 Sarah Saldaña ’84 becomes first Hispanic woman to serve as a U.S. Attorney in Texas
2013 Mary L. Murphy ’83 becomes first woman to serve as an administrative regional judge in Texas
2013-2014 Julie Forrester becomes the first woman dean ad interim at SMU Dedman School of Law
2014 Jennifer M. Collins becomes the first woman dean at SMU Dedman School of Law
2015 Jessica Dixon Weaver becomes first African-American woman to earn tenure
2016 Barbara M.G. Lynn ’76 becomes first woman appointed as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
2017 Lolita Bucker Inniss becomes first African-American woman appointed as full professor
2019 Laura Geisler ’97 becomes first Hispanic to serve as Dallas Bar Association President