Henny Magnussen

Henny Magnussen was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark, on 18 December 1878. She was the daughter of the farmer Jens Petersen and his wife Boline Buch. She studied law at the University of Copenhagen, where she graduated in 1905. She was the first woman to obtain a legal degree in Denmark, but she was not allowed to practice as a lawyer. She campaigned for the legal rights of women, and persuaded the minister of justice Peter Adler Alberti to propose a law that gave women the same privileges as men in the legal profession. She became the first woman to be appointed as a high court barrister in 1909. She worked with several prominent lawyers, and established her own practice, where she specialized in marital and divorce cases. She also served as the leader of the Copenhagen branch of the Danish Women's Society from 1907 to 1909. She married Ove Knud Magnussen, another high court barrister, in 1913. She died in Copenhagen on 20 June 1937, after suffering from heart problems.