The late Judge Mary Cacioppo ’45, was the only woman in her wartime graduating class of seven. Two years after earning her J.D., she formed a partnership with Patricia O’Donnell that is thought to have been the first all-female law firm in Akron.

Cacioppo was also the first woman to be appointed as assistant law director in Akron and to the Akron Board of Zoning Appeals. She was the first female magistrate in the Summit County Domestic Relations Court. She went on to become a judge on the Ninth District Court of Appeals.                                                                                                                                                

According to her obituary in the Beacon Journal, she first made a name for herself when she triumphed over the Board of Elections for denying her the right to vote because she had kept her name after marriage and was unable to prove marital status.

“When she came into the field of law, she had many professors who didn’t believe a woman belonged in the field and told her she should go home,” Summit County Juvenile Court Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio told the Beacon Journal. “But she battled her way through law school, just like she battled for her right to vote, and succeeded.”   

Judge Mary Spicer earned her J.D. in 1965 via night school while employed as a social worker at Summit County Receiving Hospital and in the practice of her husband, the late Dr. Kieve Shapiro. She retired from the Summit County Common Pleas Court in 2009, after a 24-year career.                                                                                                                         

When elected in 1984, Spicer was the county’s first female judge to serve on the Common Pleas bench. She was the founding judge of the county’s felony drug court in 2002 and presided over it until her retirement. Prior to her election, she served as a referee and director of human services for Summit County Probate Court for four years.

Judge Alice Batchelder ’71, is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She received her commission on December 2, 1991, and served as chief judge of the court from 2009 until 2014. She stepped down as chief judge on August 15, 2014, upon turning 70.                                                                                         

Batchelder is the first Akron Law graduate to serve on a U.S. circuit court. In 2005, she was considered by President George W. Bush as a potential nominee for a Supreme Court seat that ultimately went to Justice Samuel Alito.                          

Batchelder taught high school English for several years before entering Akron Law. She was editor in chief of the law review in a graduating class with only six women. She earned a Master of Laws degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1988. 

She worked in a private practice from 1971 to 1983 before being appointed a judge of the United States bankruptcy court for the Northern District of Ohio. In 1985, she was nominated to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and received her commission on April 4, 1985.

Sally Benson ’74, said she never felt she was treated any differently than the men in law school, and she never felt discriminated against in her career either—except at her first law firm job with the largest firm in Palm Beach County, Florida.                                                              

“The firm was great. They were really solid people,” she said. “I learned the basics of law practice there. However, the insurance companies they represented did not want a woman in the courtroom for them, if you can believe that. We also represented self-insured companies like Florida Power & Light, and they had no problem with me.”                       

The firm also put her to work on some land development deals, which is what she focused on when she went out on her own.

“I stayed with them for almost four years but had to leave when I had a baby. Women didn't have the flexibility back then,” she said.

Before long, Benson had a staff of five and was doing 300 commercial real estate closings a year. Women-owned firms at the time were mostly solo practices or very small. Sally S. Benson P.A. is the longest-running female-owned firm in Palm Beach County. Benson later segued into commercial real estate development, another field where women are a rarity.      

Judge Saundra Jean Robinson ’77, who passed away in 2017 at 77, recorded several groundbreaking achievements in the course of her legal career.       

She earned a bachelor’s degree in medical technology in 1961 and worked as a hospital lab technician for 10 years before becoming a teacher.                                                     

In 1973, she enrolled at Akron Law and attended classes at night while teaching and raising two sons. In 1977, she became Akron Law’s first African American female graduate. Robinson started her legal career as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor in Cleveland, then became an assistant prosecutor for the city of Akron. In 1980, she made history again when she was appointed as the city’s first African American female chief prosecutor.

In 1990, running as a Republican, Robinson bested the incumbent Democrat to become Summit County’s first African American female common pleas judge, presiding over the juvenile court. The county Republican party chairman is remembered for saying after her victory, “We’re only recruiting women.”                                                                                                                   

Judge Deborah Cook ’78, is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, based in Akron. She assumed senior status in 2019. Following graduation from law school until her election to the Ninth District Court of Appeals in 1991, Cook was a member of Roderick, Myers & Linton, where she was the firm's first female partner.

Cook served four years on the Ninth District Court before being elected to the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1994. She was re-elected in 2000 and served until her appointment to the Sixth Circuit in 2003. She was the first Akron Law graduate to serve on the Supreme Court of Ohio. She was mentioned as a possible nominee to the United States Supreme Court in 2005 and again in 2008.

Judge Betty Sutton ’90, a judge on the Ninth District Court of Appeals since 2021, is the only Ohioan to ever serve as a legislator at the city, county, state, and federal levels of government.

While still in law school, she was elected to serve as an at-large councilwoman for the city of Barberton. She then served two years on the Summit County Council, before being elected in 1992 to the Ohio House of Representatives. She was, at the time of her election, the youngest woman ever elected to serve in the Ohio House.

Sutton served in the Ohio House for eight years, leaving in 2000, when term limits prevented her from running again. She returned to private practice with Faulkner, Hoffman & Phillips, LLC, until 2006, when she won election to the United States House of Representatives in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District. She served in the U.S. House until 2013. Later that year, she was appointed to serve as the administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. In 2020, prior to joining the Court of Appeals in February 2021, she worked on toxic tort claims with Bevan & Associates Co. LPA Inc. 

Left to right: Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judges Susan Ross Baker and Joy Malek Oldfield, Summit County Probate Judge Elinor Marsh Stormer, Court of Common Pleas Judge Alison Breaux, and Summit County Domestic Relations Judge Kari Harvey Hightower.

Left to right: Akron Municipal Court Judge Nicole Walker, Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands, Summit County Juvenile Court Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio, Municipal Court Judge Annalisa Stubbs Williams, Common Pleas Judges Kathryn Michael and Christine Croce, and Domestic Relations Court Judge Katarina Cook.

Local Akron Law alumni judges not pictured: Judge Katelyn Dickey, Seventh District Court of Appeals; Judge Becky Doherty, Portage Common Pleas Court; Judge Paula Giulitto, Portage County Domestic Relations Court; Judge Joyce Kimbler, Medina County Common Pleas Court; Judge Jill Flagg Lanzinger, Ninth District Court of Appeals; Judge Melissa Roubic, Portage County Municipal Court; Judge Julie Schafer, Medina County Domestic Relations Court; and Judge Diana Stevenson, Barberton Municipal Court.  

 Alumni on the Bench

Akron Law is proud of the more than 50 women alumni who have served or currently serve as judges in Northeast Ohio. As Judge Saundra Robinson’s 1990 upset win revealed, voters—especially women voters—tend to prefer women judges. And women vote at a higher rate than men. In Summit County, all 14 judges are women. So are all five in Portage County. In Stark County, it’s seven of nine, and it’s two of four in Medina County.

Other Notable Women Alumni

Karen D. Adinolfi ‘01
Shareholder, Roetzel & Andress

Trina Carter ‘92
Member, Board of Trustees, The University of Akron

M. Celeste Cook ‘87
Vice President and General Counsel, Secretary, Board of Trustees, The University of Akron

Chaka Crome ‘02
Owner, Crome Law Firm

Malisheia Douglas
Attorney, Squire Patton & Boggs

Stephanie Felicetty ‘03
Associate General Counsel, University of Chicago

Angela Gott ‘07
Partner, Benesch, Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP

Yunjun June Guo ‘17
Senior Patent Counsel, AbbVie Inc.

Jeannette Knudsen ‘98
Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at the J.M. Smucker Company

Amanda Leffler ‘02
Akron Managing Partner, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP

Megan Frantz Oldham ‘05
Partner, Plakas Mannos

Jacqueline A. Silas-Butler ‘84
Executive Director, Project GRAD Akron

Lynne Tracy ‘94
U.S. Ambassador to Russia