Elisa Ussing

Edele Elisa Minona Ussing (1885–1949) was a pioneering Danish female lawyer. In 1920, she became the first woman to serve as a legal substitute in the Estate Tax Office (Lenskontoret) and in 1933, accepting a temporary assignment, was the first woman to serve as a judge in the Østre Landsret, one of Denmark's two high courts. She was officially appointed an Østre Landsret judge in 1939.

Biography Born on 9 June 1885 in Alexandria, Egypt, Edele Elisa Minona Ussing was the daughter of the judge Carl Johannes Ussing (1854–96) and Ebba Margrethe Puggaard (1856–1910). Thanks to her father, who served as a judge in the Mixed Courts of Egypt, she was encouraged to enter the legal profession. After matriculating from N. Zahle's School in Copenhagen in 1904, she studied law at the University of Copenhagen, graduating in 1909 as one of just two female students.