Reno native, Judge Patricia Lynch, graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno and then entered McGeorge School of Law as one of 5 women in her class of 200. Her career started as a VISTA attorney, and then a legislative assistant in Washington D.C. for Congressman John Moss from Sacramento, Calif. Patricia came back to Nevada and was hired as the first female city attorney in Reno’s City Attorney’s Office as a misdemeanor prosecutor and had her first introduction to domestic violence. This experience became a very important influence in her life. She became a fierce activist in fighting domestic violence, co-founding the first Rape Crisis Line in Reno. As City Attorney, she created the first domestic violence victim advocate position in Nevada and was appointed to the original Domestic Violence Prevention Council. This council was created upon the passage of the federal Violence Against Women Act. Judge Lynch ended her Nevada judicial career by serving as Justice of the Peace to the Reno Justice Court from 2007-2019.
Highlights coming soon.
Patricia A. Lynch was interviewed on December 16, 2002, by the Nevada Women’s History Project through a grant from the Ericson Family Trust Foundation.