The Wisconsin Supreme Court renamed the State Law Library on Monday in honor of Lavinia Goodell, the first woman to practice law in the state. Goodell, a resident of Janesville, was admitted to the Rock County bar in 1874 and made history as the first woman to argue and win a case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The renaming ceremony was attended by three of Wisconsin’s six female Supreme Court justices, who gathered to celebrate Goodell’s contributions to the legal field.
She was truly a force to be reckoned with, said Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Lavinia’s legacy continues, and we are witnessing history in the making. Walsh Bradley also noted this was the first time a state-owned building in Wisconsin was named after a woman.
Rachel Frost Starkey, Goodell’s great-grandniece, expressed her pride: Knowing she had the courage to be such a trailblazer makes me incredibly proud. Learning this is the first building named after a woman in Wisconsin was overwhelming and deeply touching.
Goodell, the daughter of a New York abolitionist, began her career in journalism, writing for newspapers and Harper’s Bazar before moving to Wisconsin in the 1870s to care for her aging parents. She studied law on her own and took one of her cases to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, though initially denied the right to argue. Goodell then worked with lawmakers to pass a law preventing Wisconsin courts from denying law licenses based on gender. In 1879, one year before her death, she argued her case before the state’s highest court.
The decision to rename the library stirred controversy when announced in June, as it involved removing the name of conservative former Justice David Prosser, who retired in 2016. The court’s liberal justices, who recently gained control for the first time in over 15 years, backed the renaming. Tensions between Prosser and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who is ideologically liberal, date back to an altercation in 2011 when Prosser placed his hands around her neck during an argument, claiming self-defense.
Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley criticized the renaming earlier this year, calling it a petty and vindictive decision in a social media post.