Annie Langstaff

Langstaff, Annie

Annie Langstaff, née MacDonald, feminist, legal scholar, aviatrix (b at Alexandria, Ont 1887; d at Montréal 29 June 1975). First woman graduate of McGill's professional schools and first woman graduate in law in Québec (first-class honours, 1914), she achieved notoriety as a result of litigation against the Québec Bar, in which she sought permission to take its qualifying examinations. Defeated, Langstaff returned as a paralegal in 1916 to the Montréal law firm of her sponsor and advocate, Samuel W. Jacobs. She wrote several articles on family law published in popular women's journals, as well as the unique French-English, English-French Law Dictionary (1937), and she continued to agitate for the admission of women to law practice in Québec until it was achieved in 1942. Langstaff herself was never admitted to the bar.