Clara Shortridge Foltz was the first woman to pass the California bar exam in 1878, the first woman appointed deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County in 1910, and the first woman ever to run for governor of California, which she did in 1930 at age 81. Foltz also pioneered the concept of the public defender's office, which provides free defense counsel to people who can’t afford it. In 2001, the central criminal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles was renamed in her honor.
