Erlinda Espiritu

Erlinda Arce Ignacio Espiritu (c. September 1925 – June 24, 2008) was a Filipino lawyer. She was the first woman to graduate from Harvard Law School.

Background Born Erlinda Cayetano Arce Ignacio in September 1925, she was the daughter of Arturo Arce Ignacio, who served four terms as Governor of Oriental Mindoro. She recounted growing up in a time where women are expected to stay home; and educated women to become teachers.

She graduated magna cum laude from the Manuel L. Quezon University School of Law and became a lawyer in 1947. Her son, Benjamin "Chippy" Ignacio Espiritu, was later elected Governor of Oriental Mindoro. She gave up her legal career to take over the presidency of her family's rural bank in the 1960s.

Espiritu later returned to Harvard in October 2007 as a guest of honor at an LL.M. dinner.

Awards and honors In 2025, her son endowed the Erlinda Arce Ignacio Espiritu Professorial Chair in Civil Law and Legal Innovations at the Manuel L. Quezon University School of Law to honor his deceased mother.