Marion G. Griffin

1873 - 1957  (83 years)

• Name	Marion G. Griffin
  Birth	20 Oct 1873	Georgia
  Gender	Female
  Death	1957
  Person ID	I17326	Scudder
  Last Modified	20 Apr 2007

  
  

  Father	John Alexander Griffin,   b. Abt 1847, Georgia d. Bef 1910 (Age < 62 years)
  Mother	Anna Maria Longstreet Scudder,   b. 23 Feb 1852, Greensboro, Greene, Georgia d. 27 Oct 1927, Shelby county, Tennessee (Age 75 years)
  Marriage	4 May 1871	Greene county, Georgia
  Family ID	F5924	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Marion was a legal stenographer. In 1900, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Scruggs issued a license for her to practice law in his court. She was also admitted to practice before Chancellor Dehaven. Her application for admission to the Bar, which would have permitted her to practice in all courts of Tennessee, was denied in 1900 and again in 1901. She petitioned the Supreme Court, but in Ex parte Griffin, 71 S.W. 746 (Tenn. 1901), the Court voted three to two to deny her admission. While she was lobbying the Legislature to allow women to be admitted in all Tennessee Courts, she attended the University of Michigan Law School, from which she graduated within six months. She eventually won her battle in the Tennessee Legislature, and the law as passed in February 1907 decreed that "Any woman of the age of twenty-one years and otherwise possessing the necessary qualifications, who shall hereafter apply for the same, may be granted a license to practice law in the courts of this State." In 1907, Marion became the first woman licensed to practice law in Tennessee. She was a general practitioner until she retired in 1949. In 1923, she became the first woman elected to the Tennessee State Legislature. The Nashville Chapter of the Lawyers’ Association for Women is named after her.