Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy (born January 12, 1945) is a Virginia jurist. She was the first woman named to theVirginia State Corporation Commission and later was the first woman named to be a justice of theSupreme Court of Virginia, where she served until her retirement in 2007.^[1]

Lacy graduated fromSt. Mary's College at Notre Dame in 1966 and taught elementary school in Texas for a year. She studied law at theUniversity of Texas Law School and graduated in 1969. She also received an LL.M. from theUniversity of Virginia School of Law in 1992.

Lacy practiced law in Texas before moving to Virginia, serving for three years with the Texas Legislative Council, and then for three years with the Texas Attorney General's office, specializing in antitrust andconsumer protection law.

From 1976 to 1977, Lacy moved to Virginia and served as legislative aide to state delegateCarrington Williams.

She then began working for the Virginia Office of Attorney General, underGerald L. Baliles. She rose to become 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).

GovernorCharles S. Robb appointed her to the State Corporation Commission, which had judicial as well as responsibilities. She was the first woman on the SCC. After Gerald L. Baliles was elected Governor of Virginia, he appointed Lacy to the Virginia Supreme Court as discussed below. DelegateTheodore V. Morrison Jr., a lawyer fromNewport News, Virginia and part-time member of the General Assembly, was nominated and confirmed to succeed her on the SCC.

On November 22, 1988, Gov. Baliles appointed Lacy to the Virginia Supreme Court, and the General Assembly confirmed her appointment in due course. She was again the first woman to hold the position, and she was subsequently elected to a full 12-year term. Although by seniority she was the longest serving active member of the Supreme Court when Chief JusticeHarry 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 before 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 JusticeLeroy Rountree Hassell, Sr., then second in seniority to Justice Lacy, was elected chief justice, and was the first African American to hold that position. Justice Lacy retired and took senior status effective August 16, 2007. On December 31, 2019, Justice Lacy stepped down as a senior justice after more than 30 years' service to the Court.

TheLibrary of Virginia honored her as one of the eightVirginia Women in History for 2008.^[2]

• List of female state supreme court justices

• Virginia Women in History biography at Library of Virginia
• American Bar Association oral history

• 1945 births
• Living people
• People from Parris Island, South Carolina
• Saint Mary's College (Indiana) alumni
• University of Texas School of Law alumni
• University of Virginia School of Law alumni
• Virginia lawyers
• Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia
• 20th-century Virginia state court judges
• 21st-century American judges
• 20th-century American women judges
• 21st-century American women judges

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