By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published May 11, 2009

As a second woman prepares to join the S.C. Supreme Court, some female lawyers say her election is significant for a profession that still lacks diversity, often in high-level positions.

Earlier this month, Kaye Hearn, chief judge of the S.C. Court of Appeals, became the only candidate running for a vacancy on the state’s highest court when her two opponents dropped out of the race. If she’s approved by state lawmakers on May 13, Hearn will join Chief Justice Jean Toal as the second woman ever to sit on the court.

Kaye Hearn, chief judge of the S.C. Court of Appeals, soon will be the second woman on the S.C. Supreme Court.

Some in the legal field say her election to the Supreme Court could help erase the boundaries that women still face in career advancement and will provide another role model for younger women. Hearn said a more diverse court helps bring new perspectives to decisions.

Hearn’s presence would shift the five-member court’s female representation to 40%. That’s higher than the percentage of attorneys in South Carolina who are women — 30% according to  the S.C. Bar Association. Women represent about 23% of judges across South Carolina.

Toal, who was first elected to the Supreme Court in 1988, said those proportions are much better than when she began practicing law about 40 years ago. Women represented less than 1% of lawyers in the state at that time, and they could not serve on juries.

“I think women are so much more accepted in the profession than 40 years ago when I started,” Toal said. “Are there still barriers? Yes. But more visibility of women lawyers in roles of success and leadership is the best way I know to break through those barriers and the glass ceiling.”

Hearn said that, when she began practicing law in Horry County in the 1970s, some male lawyers preferred to talk to her male counterparts, rather than do business with her. One attorney repeatedly called her “princess.” But Hearn said focusing on those incidents is the wrong approach.

“You have to prove yourself like every other lawyer has to prove themselves,” Hearn said. “If you look for discrimination around every corner, you will find it.”

Women make up a similar share of attorneys nationally. Women represent about 32% of attorneys in the United States, according to a 2008 report by the American Bar Association.

Toal said the imbalance of women and men in the legal community is, in part, a reflection of the lack of female lawyers in past decades. Law school classes these days reflect a more balanced ratio between men and women, she said. 

“As (we) greyer heads retire and the newer-age cohorts move along, you’ll find those statistics moving much closer together,” Toal said.

In the past 20 years, women’s representation in the legal community has doubled. In 1989, women made up 15% of S.C. attorneys.

But, as a result of their still-small proportion in the field, it’s not uncommon for female attorneys at depositions to be mistaken for court reporters, said Debra Gammons, acting director of the Office of Diversity Initiatives at the Charleston School of Law.

Gammons said the stereotype that women cannot hold higher-level jobs will fade only as more women enter the legal profession.  She would like to see the court and the legal profession better reflect the population — about 50% women.

“You have to start with the profession first,” Gammons said. “Because you have to be an attorney before you can be a judge.”

Liz Crum, immediate past president of the S.C. Women Lawyers Association, said that only in recent years have women had meaningful opportunities to get elected to judicial positions. That is partly because more women now have the needed experience, she said.

But it takes more than experience to win an election.

“I think women have begun to develop their own networks,” Crum said. “I think networks are incredibly important to being able to get elected to anything, be it a judgeship or public office.”

The S.C. Women Lawyers Association began as a way for female lawyers to find mentors and figure out how to balance work and life, Crum said. Now, its focus is more on helping women advance within the profession, where limits on how far women can go still seem to exist, she said.

Toal said the addition of Hearn to the court gives the state another female mentor and role model, and it marks another important milestone for diversity in the state. But she doesn’t want Hearn’s qualifications and the assets she brings to the Supreme Court to be overshadowed by the fact that she is a woman.

“I suspect that the varied dynamics of our experience as lawyers and judges probably impact our decisions more than gender or ethnicity,” Toal said. “But certainly, having a diverse court gives a richness to decision-making. And that’s important.”

Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129.