Where Famous Women Lawyers Went To Law School

See where trailblazing women attorneys attended law school

Male attorneys outnumber female lawyers in the U.S. and worldwide, but the American Bar Association notes some encouraging trends. Women became a majority of law students in the U.S. in 2016 and a majority of law firm associates in 2023. By 2025, the ABA predicts, women are likely to become the majority of full-time law school faculty. Beyond becoming an academic or an attorney, a law degree may also lead to a career in government, politics, media or public policy. While the ABA describes progress for women in the highest levels of the legal profession as “so agonizingly slow that it is almost invisible,” some trailblazers have brought change. Here’s where some of those famous women attorneys went to law school.

Amal Clooney

Where she earned her law degree: New York University School of Law

U.S. News law school rank: 9 (tie)

Amal Clooney’s landmark human rights cases include a 2021 trial that secured the first-ever conviction of an ISIS member for genocide. Clooney represents victims of mass atrocities and human rights violations in international and national courts. In the United Kingdom, she has served as the Special Envoy on Media Freedom and on the Attorney General’s Public International Law Panel. She is co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice with her husband, actor and filmmaker George Clooney. Previously senior adviser to United Nations Special Envoy Kofi Annan on Syria, Clooney was appointed special adviser to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Darfur in 2021. She also serves on the international task force on accountability for crimes committed in Ukraine.

Lina Khan

Where she earned her law degree: Yale Law School (CT)

U.S. News law school rank: 1 (tie)

The youngest-ever chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan was 32 when she was named to a three-year term. Khan drew notice in 2017 as a student, publishing a breakthrough paper in the Yale Law Journal titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.” She joined the Open Markets Institute fresh out of college, becoming director of legal policy, then served as a legal fellow at the FTC before leaving to teach at Columbia Law. Khan also served as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, commercial and administrative law. As the nation’s top corporate regulator, Khan is known for vigorously enforcing regulations against illegal and anticompetitive practices and mergers that harm consumers, and focusing on better pay and access to health care.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Where she earned her law degree: Columbia Law School (NY)

U.S. News law school rank: 8

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, from 1993 until her death in 2020. The American Civil Liberties Union described her as “a pioneer for gender equality throughout her distinguished career.” A lifelong advocate for women’s rights, Ginsburg co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU and, as ACLU general counsel, argued six gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court, winning five. As a Supreme Court justice, she delivered landmark opinions on voting rights, separation of church and state, gender discrimination, abortion, and exercise of religion. Ginsburg was also known for her strongly worded dissents, with her powerful dissent in defense of voting rights earning her the nickname “the notorious R.B.G.”

Gloria Allred

Where she earned her law degree: Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University (CA)

U.S. News law school rank: 61 (tie)

Founding partner of the law firm Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, Gloria Allred is known for high-profile cases involving women’s rights, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and employment discrimination. She has represented clients in lawsuits against prominent figures, including entertainers Sean “Diddy” Combs, R. Kelly, Tommy Lee and Bill Cosby, politicians Arnold Schwarzenegger and Anthony Weiner, film director Roman Polanski, and President Donald Trump. Allred represented two couples in the first lawsuit that led to the California Supreme Court’s historic ruling that it was unconstitutional for the state to ban same-sex couples from civil marriage. She also founded the nonprofit Women’s Equal Rights Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Kamala Harris

Where she earned her law degree: University of California College of the Law, San Francisco

U.S. News law school rank: 82 (tie)

Before she became U.S. vice president, Kamala Harris was a U.S. senator representing California. The second Black woman senator in history, she advocated for health care and tax reforms, stricter gun control laws, and the DREAM Act. Previously, as attorney general of California, she created the Homeowner Bill of Rights and the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit, and focused on criminal justice reform. Harris served as district attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, creating the hate crimes unit and the environmental crimes unit. Early in her career, Harris prosecuted homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and child abuse and neglect cases. After President Joe Biden suspended his re-election campaign in July 2024, Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president but lost the election.

Brenda Hale

Where she earned her law degree: Girton College, University of Cambridge (UK)

U.S. News law school rank: 6 in Best Global Universities

Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, was the first woman on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and served as its president from 2017 until retiring in 2020. Hale started her career at the University of Manchester Law School, spending 18 years in academia. In 1984, she became the first woman and the youngest person appointed to the Law Commission, where she led critical reforms in mental health and family law. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel and part-time circuit judge in 1989, then a judge of the family division of the High Court, before becoming the second woman ever appointed to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 1999. In 2004, she became the first woman appointed to the appellate committee of the British House of Lords in its 600-year existence.

Debra Katz

Where she earned her law degree: University of Wisconsin–Madison

U.S. News law school rank: 36 (tie)

Debra Katz’s career has covered numerous high-profile cases involving sexual harassment, civil rights, whistleblower protection and employment law. She represented Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who brought sexual assault allegations against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing; several women who were sexually assaulted by former film producer Harvey Weinstein; and Dr. Rick Bright, the public health official who alleged he faced retaliation for raising concerns over the Trump administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response. She is a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin LLP and serves on the board of the nonpartisan government watchdog Project On Government Oversight.

Haben Girma

Where she earned her law degree: Harvard Law School (MA)

U.S. News law school rank: 4 (tie)

Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer focusing on disability justice. The first deaf and blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, she is also a writer and speaker and developed a text-to-braille communication system. President Barack Obama named her a White House Champion of Change in 2013, and the World Health Organization appointed her Commissioner of Social Connection. In 2014, Girma represented the National Federation of the Blind and a blind Vermont resident in a lawsuit against Scribd, leading to an agreement that the digital document library would provide content accessible to blind readers. She gives keynote speeches for universities, companies and libraries, with a focus on increasing digital accessibility.

Mary Bonauto

Where she earned her law degree: Northeastern University School of Law (MA)

U.S. News law school rank: 68 (tie)

Civil rights advocate Mary Bonauto’s alma mater describes her as “the architect and lead attorney in securing same-sex marriage nationwide.” Bonauto is senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders — known as GLAD — where she has worked since 1990. She was lead counsel in the 2004 case that made Massachusetts the first U.S. state where same-sex couples could marry, and in 2015 she successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Bonauto has litigated on relationship recognition, anti-LGBTQ discrimination, parentage protections, student rights, religious liberty and free speech. Her policy work focuses on reforming the juvenile justice, criminal justice and child welfare systems and helping to pass conversion therapy bans.

Where famous women lawyers went to law school

— Amal Clooney — New York University School of Law

— Lina Khan — Yale Law School (CT)

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg — Columbia Law School (NY)

— Gloria Allred — Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University (CA)

— Kamala Harris — University of California College of the Law, San Francisco

— Brenda Hale — Girton College, University of Cambridge (UK)

— Debra Katz — University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School

— Haben Girma — Harvard Law School (MA)

— Mary Bonauto — Northeastern University School of Law (MA)

More from U.S. News

How to Show Courage in a Law School Application