Annette Grace Adams Abbott

In a San Francisco courtroom in 1914, a young woman attorney squared off against U.S. Attorney John W. Preston in a "white slavery" case. Most contemporaries would have seen the match up as a slaughter, a farce. How could a girl attorney match wits against a successful male attorney like Mr. Preston?

At the time, women attorneys in California and other states were little more than a myth, rumored to reside here or there, but seen by very few. The Nineteenth Amendment and universal women's suffrage was still six years away, a goal becoming ever more plausible, but still far from inevitable.

The woman facing U.S. Attorney Preston that day was no ordinary attorney. She was Annette Grace Adams Abbott, and she was about to show California and the world that women's role in society was rapidly changing. Annette's performance in court that day would not only serve her client well, but it would earn her a lifelong ally in her adversary, U.S. Attorney Preston, and start her on the road to becoming one of greatest barrier breakers in American legal history.

From that day, Annette Abbott Adams was on her way to becoming the first woman Assistant U.S. Attorney in the nation, the beginning of many firsts in her career. Annette would go on to become the first woman to hold a position as U.S. Attorney, Assistant U.S. Attorney General, justice on a California State appellate court, presiding justice on a California appellate court, and justice pro tempore on the California Supreme Court.

Adapted from "Girl" Lawyer Makes Good: The Story of Annette Abbott Adams, by Joey Dean Horton, Women's Legal History Biography Project