Elizabeth B. Lacy

Who is Elizabeth B. Lacy?

Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy is a Virginia jurist and was the first woman named to the Virginia State Corporation Commission and subsequently was the first woman named to be a Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Lacy is a graduate of St. Mary's College at Notre Dame and the University of Texas law school. She also received an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1992. Lacy practiced law in Texas before moving to Virginia.

Prior to her appointment to the SCC by Governor Charles S. Robb, Lacy was the state Deputy Attorney General for Judicial Affairs, a division that prosecutes consumer protection violations, oversees the state's antitrust laws, state regulations and conflict of interest statutes. She was succeeded on the SCC by Del. Theodore V. Morrison Jr., a member of the General Assembly and a lawyer from Newport News, Virginia.

Lacy was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Gerald L. Baliles on November 22, 1988. Her appointment was later confirmed by the General Assembly and she was subsequently elected to a second 12-year term. Although by seniority she was the longest serving active member of the Supreme Court when Chief Justice Harry L. Carrico retired, Lacy did not succeed him as Chief Justice. Although the Chief Justice was previously the senior active member of the Court, a change in the law prior to the former Chief Justice Carrico's retirement provided that in future the Chief Justice would be selected by an election of the Court members for a four-year term. Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr., then second in seniority to Justice Lacy, was elected Chief Justice. Justice Lacy retired and took senior status effective August 16, 2007.