Grossman, Mary B. (Mary Belle), 1879-1977

First female lawyer to practice in Cleveland District Federal Court, and one of the first two women admitted to the American Bar Association. In 1923 she was elected Cleveland Municipal Judge and served on the traffic bench and the Morals Court until 1960.

Mary Belle Grossman (1879-1977) was a suffragist and a pioneering women lawyer. The first women to be elected to a municipal court in the United States, in 1923, she was also one of the first two women admitted to the American Bar Association, in 1912.

Grossman, a Cleveland native, came to the law through her employment as a stenographer/bookkeeper in a cousin's law firm. Upon graduating from Cleveland Law School, she entered private practice. After he election to the Municipal Court, she established a reputation as a strict adherent to proper courtroom decorum, but also for fair and impartial decisions. Grossman was also a civic activist, chairing the League of Women's Suffrage, and holding charter memberships in the League of Women Voters and the Women's City Club of Cleveland. She also served on the boards of Montefiore Home and the Phyllis Wheatley Association, and was a member of the Temple, National Council of Jewish Women, Hadassah, and the Altrusa Club. She retired from Cleveland Municipal Court in 1960.

Click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Mary Belle Grossman