Clara Brett Martin

Clara Brett Martin, who lived from January 25, 1874, to October 30, 1923, was a Canadian lawyer who became the first female lawyer in the British Empire when she was called to the Ontario bar in 1897. Born in Toronto, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics at Trinity College in 1893 before petitioning the Law Society of Upper Canada for admission as a solicitor, a request initially rejected in 1891; the Ontario legislature responded with legislation passed in 1892 permitting women to become solicitors, and further legislation later allowed her admission as a barrister. She graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law from Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the bar in 1897, and in 1899 she became the first Canadian woman to earn a Bachelor of Laws degree, from the University of Toronto. Beyond her legal career she served as a trustee on the Toronto Board of Education from 1901 to 1911 and ran unsuccessfully for Toronto City Council in 1920.