Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal
Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal began her service as an associate justice on the
Supreme Court of South Carolina on March 17, 1988. She was re-elected in
February of 1996 and was installed as chief justice on March 23, 2000, for the
balance of the term of her predecessor, which expired June 30, 2004. She was
re-elected again in February 2004 and was installed as chief justice on June 9,
2004, for a 10-year term.
Born Aug. 11, 1943, in Columbia, she was graduated from Dreher High School in 1961 and
was recognized as the state’s top debater. Toal received a B.A. in philosophy in 1965 from
Agnes Scott College, where she served on the Judicial Council and the National Supervisory
Board of the U.S. National Student Association and played goalie for the field hockey team. She
received her J.D. in 1968 from the USC School of Law, where she served as managing editor,
leading articles editor and book review editor of the South Carolina Law Review. She is a
member of the Order of the Coif, Mortar Board and Phi Beta Kappa.
Toal practiced law for 20 years prior to her state Supreme Court election, as an associate with
Greenville’s Haynsworth Law Firm and as an associate and partner with Columbia’s Belser,
Baker, Barwick, Ravenel, Toal & Bender. She was the first woman, first native Columbian and
first Roman Catholic to serve as a justice of the state Supreme Court.
Ann Mickle
Ann Mickle completed her undergraduate studies at the University of South
Carolina in 1982, earning a bachelor of science degree. She then went on to
USC’s School of Law, earning her Juris Doctor in 1985.
A former partner of Johnson, Toal & Battiste, P.A., in 1996 Mickle earned an
appointment to the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission by then-governor
David Beasley, serving a six-year term from 1996 to 2002. In 2002, she opened the Law Offices
of Ann Mickle in Rock Hill, S.C., where she was also of counsel to the former solicitor, Jim
Anders Law Firm and Wilkerson & Lewis P.A. In 2005, Mickle opened a second office, in
Columbia, S.C., and in 2008 formed a partnership with attorney Alan Bass and opened a third
office, in Myrtle Beach. Mickle & Bass specializes in the areas of workers’ compensation and
catastrophic injuries.
Mickle is active in numerous professional associations, including serving as president of the
South Carolina Black Lawyers Association and on the Board of Governors of the S.C. Bar
Association. She is also a member of the S.C. Trial Lawyers Association, the Injured Workers’
Association and the Columbia Lawyers Association. Mickle is also active in her community
through the Columbia chapter of Links Inc., Jack and Jill of America and various church
organizations, as well as being a former board member of the Columbia Urban League.
Empowering the next gener ation
PANELISTS (cont.)
MLK
Legal Forum
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Law School Auditorium
Black Law Students Association
University of South Carolina
Panelists
Alison Renee Lee, S.C. Circuit Court Judge
Sarah Leverette, Esquire
Ann Mickle, Esquire
Jean Toal, S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice
Moderator
Judi Gatson, WIS-TV
Presiding
Katherine R. Myers
President, USC Black Law Students Association
PROGRAM
PANELISTS
Presiding
Katherine R. Myers
President, Black Law Students Association
Welcome
Cashida Okeke
Secretary, Black Law Students Association
Monologue
Greetings
Simone Martin
Vice President, Black Law Students Association
Robert Wilcox, Dean, USC School of Law
Jocelyn Newman, President, Richland County Bar Association
Deon Jacobs, President, Black Graduate Student Association
Leslie Simpson, Social Chair, Black Law Students Association
Occasion
Erika Robinson
Pre-Law Division Director, Southern Region Black Law
Students Association
Negro National Anthem
Personal Essay Alexiana Story
8th Grader, E.L. Wright Middle School
Musical Selection
Taylor Bailey
8th Grader, Second Calvary Baptist Church
Introduction of Moderator
Courtney Littlejohn
Black Law Students Association Moot Court Team
Introduction of Panelists
Judi Gatson
Panelists
Chief Justice Jean Toal
Judge Alison Lee
Ann Mickle, Esquire
Sarah Leverette, Esquire
Closing RemarksBobby Gist, Executive Assistant to the President for Equal
Opportunity Programs
Benediction
Linden Guinn
Political Action Chair, Black Law Students Association
Sarah Leverette
Born in the Upstate town of Iva, Sarah Leverette, one of the first women
lawyers in South Carolina, graduated magna cum laude from the
University of South Carolina School of Law and was admitted to the South
Carolina Bar in 1943. After postgraduate work at Columbia University,
Leverette returned to the USC School of Law as a librarian and instructor,
becoming the school’s first female faculty member, where she taught for a quarter
century. She left the university in the 1970s to serve as commissioner and chairman of
the South Carolina Industrial Commission, from which she retired in the 1980s.
Her commitment to volunteerism has kept her active with community organizations
such as Common Cause of South Carolina, the Community Relations Luncheon Club,
Richland Foundation, American Association of University Women and Education First.
Her involvement with the League of Women Voters has been one of dedication and
leadership. She served as its president from 1958 to 1961 and was presented with the
Barbara W. Moxon Award, which recognizes those dedicated to advocacy.
Judge Alison Renee Lee
Judge Alison Renee Lee was born in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17, 1958.
Her parents are James Joseph Lee, deceased, and Juanita Bacote Lee, a
retired schoolteacher. She attended Vassar College, where she graduated
with a bachelor’s degree from the Science, Technology and Society
Program, urban studies division. She received her law degree from Tulane
University School of Law in 1982, where she was a member of the National Appellate
Moot Court Team and the Moot Court Board.
Upon graduation, she served as law clerk to the Honorable Israel M. Augustine Jr. of
the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. She then moved to Columbia, S.C., to
clerk for the Honorable C. Tolbert Goolsby Jr. of the South Carolina Court of Appeals.
In September 1984, she began employment at the McNair Law Firm, practicing in the
Litigation Section. In December 1989 she joined the South Carolina Legislative Council,
drafting legislation for members of the General Assembly. Areas of specialization
included transportation, criminal laws, corrections and judiciary.
One of the first administrative law judges, she was elected in February 1994 to a oneyear term and took office on March 1, 1994. She was re-elected to a five-year term
in 1995. In February 1999, she was elected by the General Assembly to the position
of Circuit Court Judge, At Large. She is a member of the Texas, Louisiana and South
Carolina Bars. Other professional memberships in South Carolina include the S.C.
Women Lawyers Association and the Richland County Bar Association.