20th-century American lawyers

Virginia Mae Brown (November 13, 1923 – February 15, 1991) was an American civil servant, government official, and lawyer. Among her many "firsts", she became West Virginia's first female assistant attorney general by working for Attorney General John G. Fox. She was later named West Virginia's insurance commissioner, the first female to hold this position in the United States. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Brown a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the first female since its inception in 1887, and later promoted her to be its first female chair.

Joseph Louis Rauh Jr. (January 3, 1911 – September 3, 1992) was one of the United States' foremost civil rights and civil liberties lawyers. In his early career, he served as a lawyer in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration and a clerk to Supreme Court justices Benjamin N. Cardozo and Felix Frankfurter. He co-founded the liberal organization Americans for Democratic Action, and was a key lobbyist for civil rights legislation from the 1940s to 1960s.
He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993.

Major General Kenneth Joe Hodson, USA (April 27, 1913 – November 11, 1995) was an American military lawyer who served as the 27th Judge Advocate General of the United States Army from 1967 to 1971.

James Henry Binger (May 16, 1916 – November 3, 2004) was an American lawyer who became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell. He was also a well-known philanthropist, horse enthusiast and New York City and Minneapolis theatre owner and entrepreneur.

Karl Robin Bendetsen (October 11, 1907 – June 28, 1989) was an American politician and military officer who served in the Washington Army National Guard during World War II and later as the United States Under Secretary of the Army. Bendetsen is remembered primarily for his role as an architect of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, a role he tried to downplay in later years.

Thomas Francis Reilly (born February 14, 1942) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 45th Massachusetts Attorney General. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents.
He was one of three candidates who sought the Democratic nomination for governor of Massachusetts in the 2006 election. Former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick won the party's nomination and the general election, defeating Reilly and businessman Chris Gabrieli.

Rose Elizabeth Bird (November 2, 1936 – December 4, 1999) was the 25th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. She was the first female law clerk of the Nevada Supreme Court, the first female deputy public defender in Santa Clara County, the first woman to serve in the California State Cabinet, and the first female Chief Justice of California.
She was also notable as the first, and to date only, Chief Justice in California history to lose a retention election.

Wiley William Manuel (August 28, 1927–January 5, 1981) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from 1977 to 1981 and the first African American to serve on the high court.

Michael Reeves Deland (December 13, 1941 – January 8, 2018) was an American lawyer, government official and environmental consultant. He was appointed Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality by United States President George H. W. Bush in 1989.From 1983 to 1992 Deland was the Regional Administrator for New England at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As the head of EPA's office in Boston he led the agency's efforts in the 1980s to clean up Boston Harbor, and worked to protect wetlands areas in New England.Deland graduated from Harvard University in 1963, served in the U.S. Navy and obtained his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1969. He first joined EPA in 1971, and later worked as an environmental consultant from 1976 to 1983. He became chairman for the non-profit group National Organization on Disability in 2001, until his retirement in 2007.

David Thomas Kennedy (April 7, 1934 – September 4, 2014) was an American attorney and politician. Kennedy served as the Mayor of Miami from 1970 until 1973.