Breaking Barriers on the Bench

Written by Melinda Ennis-Roughton Sunday, November 01 2009

Jean Toal: chief justice, Supreme Court of South Carolina
When she was a little girl growing up in Columbia, S.C., Jean Toal dreamed of being catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Thinking back on that time, Toal partially attributes her love for the team to the fact that the Dodgers' Jackie Robinson broke new ground by becoming the first African-American player in the major leagues.

Years later, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, and Toal broke new barriers herself , by becoming the first woman elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court in 1988 and, ultimately, the first female chief justice for the state's court in 2000.

Today, she still presides as chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, but despite her enduring fondness for the Dodgers, she roots for the Atlanta Braves.

Jean Toal realized the dream she would follow in 1965, when she was a senior at Agnes Scott College (an all-women's college in Decatur, Ga.). As a philosophy major, she was headed for grad school when a friend's father, a trial judge, suggested she consider the law. Toal took a "test" course in constitutional law at nearby Emory University and was sold.

But those were not easy days for women lawyers. In 1968, when Toal graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law, only 10 other women were practicing in the state. Only 2 percent of all lawyers in the United States were women.

In fact, Toal's guidance counselor at Agnes Scott discouraged her from going to law school. "She told me I was headed for a life of disappointment," Toal recalls. "She said that women weren't accepted in the legal profession and that I would be foolish to throw away grad school for law school."

She was undaunted. "You have to be a trailblazer," Toal says. "You really have to have a high degree of confidence and believe in yourself, no matter what others say."

It also helped that her parents encouraged her. "My father talked to me about his business and encouraged me to think of a career, although there were no lawyers in my family," Toal recalls. "But I had parents who told me that there were no limits to my horizon."

As a young lawyer in South Carolina, Toal became committed to making a difference. The '60s were turbulent times, especially in the South. Toal became active in the civil rights movement, South Carolina politics, and community organizing, associations she believes helped put her on her current path.

Her political activism led to a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1975, a seat she held for 13 years. Following her time in the legislative branch, she moved to the judiciary with her election to the South Carolina Supreme Court. After her appointment to chief justice in 2000 to replace a predecessor, she was re-elected in 2004 and will remain chief justice through 2010.

Toal believes success comes incrementally, not in one epiphany. "You have to pay your dues," she says. "All success is an accumulation of experience and the relationships you build."

She passed her legacy to her two daughters, one a Yale University graduate who works as a deputy for the secretary of commerce in the Obama administration; the other a Stanford University graduate who is a high school English teacher.

"Balancing my career as a law partner with two young daughters and a husband was a challenge," Toal says. "But I could not have achieved what I have without the support of my family." And, as an avid golfer and gardener, Toal has proven to be a pro at attaining harmony in her personal life.

While today women represent about 50 percent of law school graduates, the challenges remain. "What's perceived as hard-charging in men is too often seen as abrasive when it's a woman," Toal says.

But Toal is seeing the influence of the female perspective in the working world. "Like men, women come in all shapes and sizes, but I believe we are particularly good at consensus building."

And, she is proud to be part of the change-making history that has provided a new paradigm for managing positions of power.

Toal counts two U.S. Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the retired Sandra Day O'Connor, among her friends and believes the recent addition of Sonia Sotomayor is another positive step. "She is a wonderful addition," Toal says.

And soon Toal will have female companionship on her bench when another woman, Kaye Hearn, joins the South Carolina Supreme Court in December.

"It's wonderful to have a sister joining me," Toal said recently.

Melinda Ennis-Roughton is principal and owner of Atlanta-based marketing firm MelWorks Inc. and a freelance writer specializing in women's issues and film criticism. She was an on-going contributing film critic for the Atlanta Journal Constitution from 2004-2007. She was executive director/chief marketing officer (CMO) for Brand Atlanta, which was responsible for marketing the city under Shirley Franklin's administration. She served as Global CMO for Church's Chicken. Ennis-Roughton began her career with Arby's Restaurants, where she ultimately became senior vice president, marketing.