S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal on Sunday received the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Bar Association on women lawyers. The award, which recognizes legal trailblazers, was given during the ABA’s annual conference in Atlanta, which ends today. Toal, who has been on the state’s highest court since 1988 and is South Carolina’s first female chief justice, spoke with The State newspaper Monday from Atlanta about her award and issues relating to women in the legal profession.

What are your feelings about receiving the award?

“It really was a magical day for me and the large group of South Carolinians who were in attendance. It wasn’t so much an award about Jean Toal, but rather an award about the lawyers of South Carolina, the judges of South Carolina and the Women Lawyers Association of South Carolina. It really is about the progress we’ve been able to make for women and lawyers of color.”

How have opportunities changed for women in the legal profession since you became a lawyer?

“It really is a pretty incredible difference. When I graduated from (USC) law school in 1968, there were but 10 women in active practice in the state. Women at that time were not permitted to serve on state court juries.”

Toal said the jury ban was lifted about six months after she entered private practice; her employer, believing that a woman lawyer could better relate to female jurors, started allowing her to try cases. “That really gave me my break,” she said. At the time, less than 1 percent of the state’s lawyers were women; now, 28 percent of licensed lawyers are women, according to the S.C. Bar.

If a young woman told you she wanted to be a lawyer or judge and asked for advice, what would you tell her?

“I think although the profession is much more open now ... you have to work awfully hard, and you have to be a little bit better than average. We still have to prove ourselves, and hard work inevitably is the way to do that.”

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com.