Clara Shortridge Foltz

Clara Shortridge Foltz, who lived from July 16, 1849, to September 2, 1934, was the first woman admitted to the California bar, in September 1878, and is often described as the first female lawyer on the west coast of the United States. She is best known in the history of criminal procedure as the originator of the concept of the public defender, a publicly funded attorney to represent criminal defendants who cannot afford one, which she first presented publicly at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; the concept was gradually adopted into standard practice across American courts in the following decades. Beyond her legal advocacy, Foltz was active in the women's suffrage movement and in legislative reform expanding women's professional and civic rights. In 2002 the main criminal courts building in downtown Los Angeles was renamed the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in recognition of her legacy.