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But it took five more years before she was cleared, in 1879, to practice law before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, after initially being barred from doing so because she was a woman. Goodell challenged the state law that barred women from practicing before the Supreme Court, and in 1877, the state Legislature granted that change.

Goodell paved the way for subsequent generations of Wisconsin women to enter the law profession, and for women like McCrory to see judgeship as attainable.

“She didn’t give up,� said McCrory, who herself broke barriers, elected in 2012 as the first woman judge to serve in Rock County and today the county’s longest serving circuit judge. “She was told ‘no’ by the Supreme Court (but) she didn’t give up.�

Rhoda Lavinia Goodell was born in 1839 in Utica, New York, according to William Fiske Brown’s “History of Rock County.�

She moved to Janesville in 1871 after teaching for four years and writing editorials for Harper’s Bazaar. Goodell also assisted her father, Rev. William Goodell, an abolitionist and activist, in writing articles and editing his antislavery and pro-suffrage publications.

A digital biography about Goodell by Nancy Kopp, a Wisconsin Supreme Court commissioner, and Colleen Ball, a law clerk for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, details Goodell’s inner life from letters, diaries and writings.

Goodell, who deeply valued knowledge, learning, libraries and philosophy, knew she wanted to be a lawyer when she was a teenager, Kopp and Ball wrote. She debated her sister over choosing a more traditional life path. She also had an optimistic view of the future and sought out opportunities for growth.

“Women must be the protector of her own honor, the judge of her own duty, the keeper of her own conscience answerable only to the law and heaven,� Goodell once wrote.

In Janesville, she studied law under Mr. A. A. Jackson, but didn’t attend a law school.

Law career

Goodell was admitted to the Rock County Circuit Court Bar, of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court, in June 1874, after passing an oral examination in open court administered by a 12th district judge. That made her the first female lawyer in Wisconsin.

She then practiced as an attorney in Madison and Janesville, advertising her services for financial cases, and as a notary public. Advertisements for her firm said she worked in offices both in Janesville, at 21 W. Milwaukee St., and in Madison at 44 Pinckney St.

In 1875, Goodell appealed a case she was representing to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. At the time, passing an examination in a circuit court allowed an attorney to practice in any court in the state, except for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which required an additional application, the Janesville Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô reported.

Goodell applied for a license to practice before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in August 1875, but was denied because of her sex, she wrote in a letter published in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Chief Justice Edward Ryan issued the opinion denying her petition, asserting only men should be allowed to practice law in Wisconsin. He wrote that women’s role of bearing children and maintaining the home didn’t align with becoming lawyers, and that women becoming lawyers was “treason against nature.�

Goodell opposed the Supreme Court’s decision, writing letters publicly challenging the ban and attaining national recognition for opposing the idea that gendered language in state law could exclude women from practicing law.

In 1877, she drafted the bill that was ultimately approved by the state Legislature which said “no person shall be denied admission or license to practice as an attorney in any Court in this state, on the account of sex.� It was signed into state law in March 1877.

Goodell then – finally – filed the appeal to her previous case, and again petitioned for admission to practice before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Goodell was admitted to the bar of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on June 18, 1879. The Wisconsin State Journal reported she moved that year to Madison, and then to Milwaukee.

Temperance and women’s rights

Kopp and Ball wrote that Goodell often took on temperance and women’s rights cases, while also handling end of life documentation, collections, criminal cases and other cases.

She was described as a “born lawyer, and was distinguished for her logical and argumentative mind,â€� by Harper's Bazaar in an article published after her death. She was “a woman of marked characteristics, of strong willpower and a close student,â€� the Janesville Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô said.

Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô wrote in an 1879 article that during a case tried in Madison, Goodell “was beaming with will and sharp and decisive repartees, much to the delight of a dozen young law students who had assembled to hear how the female attorney conducted her case…(she) was very clear, and all her points were well taken.â€�

“She won the case,� the article said, which required damages of $3 be paid to her client.

Lifting other women up

Kopp said one of her favorite quotes from Goodell reflects the burden of being the first at something, and having to persevere alone.

“It is so hard struggling against prejudice and standing alone with so little sympathy and help,� Goodell wrote.

But, she said, “when the world gets dirty why shouldn’t we arm ourselves and go to work at it, without being afraid of the dust? It will come out bright, pure, fresh, like my parlor.�

“I do not think it is necessary to do everything just as men do, if you know a better way,� is another quote of Goodell’s that particularly resonates with her, Kopp said.

Throughout her career, Goodell lifted other women up around her.

“That’s near and dear to my heart,� McCrory said, “making sure that women have the ability to be doing the things that they want to be doing.�

On Jan. 29, 1879, in a letter published in the Janesville Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô, Goodell supported women practicing law. Her friend and later her legal partner, Angie King, had just passed her bar examination, becoming the third female lawyer in Wisconsin’s history.

Goodell and King advertised their firm “Goodell and King - Attorneys At Lawâ€� in the Janesville Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô and Wisconsin State Journal in the late 1870s.

Goodell wrote that a common argument for disallowing women to be lawyers was a fear that the study of the law would be watered down to accommodate them.

But after watching King’s examination, Goodell said it was clear that King was raising the standard for her fellow state bar applicants. It would in fact benefit everyone if the State Bar of Wisconsin made the process of becoming a lawyer more rigorous for all, she wrote.

“A lady physician is in good practice here. Altogether Janesville is in a fair way to become ‘educated up’ to women suffrage, and is getting to be one of the most ‘strong-minded’ towns in the state,� she said in the letter.

Prison reformer

Goodell was also an avid supporter of temperance and prison reform. She organized talks with former inmates, authored legislation creating a commission for county jail oversight and was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Madison.

She advocated for women’s suffrage, writing articles on the subject, and collecting thousands of signatures demanding votes for women.

McCrory said she’s inspired by the effort Goodell made “caring for those that need to be cared for, the lost among us.�

At the fourth annual congress of the American Association for the Advancement of Women, in October 1879, Goodell was a distinguished speaker.

She was also a member of Janesville’s two literary clubs, and was an executive officer of The Round Table literary club. A resolution before the Round Table once lauded her “literary talents, her genial social qualities, her devoted Christian philanthropy, her earnest efforts in promoting a generous and comprehensive culture, both of mind and heart, and her faithfulness and loyalty to this society.�

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Madison called her “self-denying a laborer, not only in the cause of temperance, but in every good work for the relief and redemption of suffering humanity.�

Ill health plagued Goodell, however. In April 1878, Goodell traveled to New York for a complex and “delicateâ€� surgery, “being a case of life or death, with chances being in favor of the death,â€� according to the Janesville Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô.

Lavinia Goodell died on March 31, 1880, at age 40, in Milwaukee. Her funeral was held April 1, 1880, at First Congregational Church in Janesville. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Janesville.

Goodell’s obituary published in the Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô said she had been “taken down with a severe illnessâ€� six weeks before her death, but had traveled to Madison the week before her death to practice law.

Goodell willed half of her estate towards “causes of women’s suffrage, prison reform and temperance,â€� the Janesville Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô reported.

Goodell’s legacy

In the century and a half since she began practicing, Goodell’s legacy has continued to resonate in Janesville, and in Wisconsin.

In 1976, Shirley Abrahamson became the first woman to serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Abrahamson went on to serve on Wisconsin Supreme Court for 43 years, becoming chief justice in 1996.

Gov. Tony Evers noted in June 2025 that Wisconsin now has more than 9,600 women lawyers. The State Bar of Wisconsin, meanwhile, says 120 of the 368 attorneys in District 12, which includes Rock County, are now women.

In June 2024, the city of Janesville celebrated the 150th anniversary of Goodell’s admission to the Rock County Circuit Court Bar. Goodell is also honored in a mural outside the Rock County Courthouse, and in September 2024, the State Law Library in Madison was renamed after her.

“Lavinia paved the way for every woman lawyer and judge who has come since, and what a long way to come,� state Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, said at the library renaming ceremony. “Between that and Lavinia’s love of libraries, this is a very fitting honor that will make sure that her place in history will be celebrated statewide.�

"She never backed down from this critical fight, which paved the way for so many women in our state who have proudly served as lawyers, judges, and justices," Justice Jill Karofsky said.