Ethel E. Mackiernan

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Ethel E. Mackiernan was a pioneering lawyer and judge in Massachusetts. She studied at Portia Law School and began her legal career in Boston in 1918, later serving as attorney for the Nantucket Institution for Savings. In 1935, Governor Joseph B. Ely appointed her as a judge on the Nantucket District Court, making her the first woman to hold a full-time judgeship in the state. In that role she became the first presiding judge of any court in Massachusetts. Beyond law, she helped run businesses as an incorporator of the Norfolk Varnish Co. and as assistant treasurer of the Jamaica Plain Cooperative Bank. She lived at 240 Babcock Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club.