Wisconsin Law Library Renamed in Honor of Wisconsin's First Woman Lawyer

Thursday, June 20th, 2024 -- 10:00 AM

(Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) The Wisconsin law library will no longer bear the name of former state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and will instead be named in honor of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin's first woman lawyer, the liberal majority of the state Supreme Court announced Wednesday.

According to Jessie Opoien with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the change comes just a little more than seven years after the library was named for Prosser, who retired from the court in July 2016, and two days after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proclaimed June 17 "Wisconsin Women Lawyers Day."

Goodell was admitted by the Rock County Circuit Court to practice law in Wisconsin on June 17, 1874. One year later, she was barred from representing her client in an appeal to the state's high court.

Goodell then drafted legislation to guarantee the right for women to practice law in Wisconsin, which was signed into law by Gov. Harrison Ludington in 1877. Following the law's enactment, she became the first woman to brief a case for consideration by the state Supreme Court in 1879, and argued and won her first case shortly before her death in 1880.

"Naming the State Law Library in Lavinia Goodell's honor is an opportunity to recognize her legacy and inspire the next generation of women in Wisconsin," Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, the court's longest-serving justice, said in a statement.

There was no apparent opposition within the court to honoring Goodell, but there was not unanimous support for removing Prosser's name from the law library.

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