TEN WOMEN IN U.S. LEGAL HISTORY #7: Florence Ellinwood Allen (March 23, 1884 – September 12, 1966) was the first woman to serve on a state Supreme Court (Ohio) and one of the first women to serve as a federal judge (U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals). Allen received her law degree with honors from New York University in 1913 and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1914. By her own admission, she was not successful at first, making only $25 in her first month practicing law. “I had no clients. I had no money. But I had great hopes,” she is quoted in a 1934 interview. Seeking to gain experience, Allen did volunteer work with her local Legal Aid Society and through that association, became involved in an important suffrage case. Allen argued that case all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court and, thanks to her efforts, won the women of East Cleveland the right to vote in municipal elections. Having gained the respect of her male colleagues, Allen’s career began to take off. She was the first woman to be appointed as a county assistant prosecuting attorney, in Cuyahoga County for Cleveland, Ohio. By 1920, she was elected as a Common Pleas judge, also the first woman in this position, and during her time on the bench tried nearly 900 cases. In 1922, Allen was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court and was re-elected in 1928 for a second term. She continued to be popular in Ohio, famous for her fair-mindedness and her tireless work to improve legal rights for women. In March 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Allen to the United State Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the first woman to serve on an Article III Federal Court. She retired in 1959, but continued to do speaking engagements and published her autobiography. Florence died at the age of 82 in 1966 in Mentor, Ohio.