Annette Abbott Adams (March 12, 1877 - October 26, 1956)

Presiding Justice, May 1942 - November 1952

An extraordinary woman and true trailblazer, Annette Abbott Adams was one of the first women school principals in California, one of the first two women to receive a law degree from the University of California, one of the first women to be admitted to the California Bar, the first woman to serve as a U.S. Attorney, the first woman appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney General, and the first woman to serve as an appellate court justice in California. She was born March 12, 1877, in Prattville, Plumas County, and attended Chico State Normal School, University of California, Berkeley (BL, 1904), and Boalt Hall (JD, 1912). Adams taught grammar school and was principal of Modoc County High School, Alturas, prior to her career in law. Admitted to the California Bar in 1912, she practiced law in Quincy, and then in San Francisco, before becoming Assistant U.S. Attorney, 1914-18, and U.S. Attorney, 1918-20. After serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney General, 1920-21, she returned to San Francisco and practiced law there until 1935, when she was appointed Assistant Special Counsel of U.S. oil litigation. In March 1942, she became California's first female appellate justice when Governor Olson appointed her Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District. Justice Adams retired December 1952; she died at her Sacramento home four years later, October 26, 1956.