Closing Statement

• Publication year: 2020
• Pages: 62

Closing Statement No. Vol. 32 Issue 3 Pg. 62 South Carolina Bar Journal November, 2020

“Stand up for what you believe”

A Conversation with Vickie Eslinger

Vickie Eslinger was denied a page position with the South Carolina Senate when she was a first-year law student add in the 1970s trying to get her foot in the door. The reason? She was a woman, there had never been a female page and the position included "dangerous" tasks like visiting the State House at night.

A law student interested in women's issues, Eslinger called Rutgers University because she knew there was new law journal there focusing on such issues. The professor she was connected with on that phone call was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"I spoke to Ruth about wanting to sue the S.C. Senate, and she told me the national ACLU was very interested in women's rights litigation and directed me to the ACLU in Columbia,” Eslinger recalls.

Ginsburg helped connect Eslinger to ACLU attorney Laughlin McDonald, and he got young South Carolina attorney Jean Toal on board. Justice Toal and Laughlin enlisted Ginsburg's help on the case.

While Eslinger's case was prolonged and she never got the opportunity to serve as a page, her story in the S.C. legal community was just beginning. After graduating from the University of South Carolina School of Law, she went on to establish the first all-female firm in the state, and spent a few years practicing law with O'Melveny & Myers in Paris, France. Eslinger, now a litigator at Nexsen Pruet in Columbia, was recently one of the featured speakers along with retired S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Toal at a memorial for Justice Ginsburg held at the South Carolina Supreme Court. Eslinger took some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for this month's edition of The Closing Statement.

Knowing what you know now, what would you tell your younger self?

Find a good mentor(s) and realize that older lawyers love helping young lawyers so contact your mentor(s) often for advice, networking and help as well as socializing. Stand up for what you believe in regardless of whether it is popular.

What advice would you offer a young female...