Four Women Who Broke Barriers at Stetson Law and Beyond

These women made an impact — not just on Stetson Law, but on the legal profession as a whole.

More than half the students at Stetson University College of Law are women, and this has been true for more than a decade — but some pioneering lawyers from Stetson remember a far different time.

Eunice Luke, for example, graduated from Stetson Law in 1966. She was talking not long ago to some younger female lawyers in Atlanta. “They couldn’t get their head around the fact that I was the only woman in my class,” she said.

But when Luke visited the Stetson campus a few years ago for her 50th reunion, she was the one trying to get her head wrapped around what she saw. “I looked around the campus and there are all these women all over the place,” Luke said. “And I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh this is so different.’”

Luke and other women in the Stetson Law community were trailblazers, even if they don’t often use such words about themselves. They can remember the people, sometimes their own classmates, who didn’t believe they belonged in law school and the skeptical looks they got in their first job interviews, in spite of their newly minted Stetson Law diplomas.

Making change on campus & the legal profession

Against unlikely odds, these women made an impact — not just on Stetson Law, but on the legal profession as a whole.

There’s Elizabeth Kovachevich, who graduated from Stetson Law in 1961 and went on to become a U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Florida.

There’s Carol W. Hunstein, who graduated in 1976 and went on to become chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

There’s Luke, who graduated from Stetson, went on to a career in the federal government, and then established a scholarship to help other Stetson students.

And there’s Peggy A. Quince, the first African-American woman to become chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Although she received her law degree from the Catholic University of America, she has been closely associated with the Stetson legal community as a friend, supporter, board of overseers member, and inductee into the Stetson Law Hall of Fame.

A history of elevating women

Stetson, which is Florida’s first law school, also holds the distinction of having the state’s first female law school graduate, in 1908. That didn’t make it a common occurrence. While female lawyers did exist in the 1960s, they were, as Luke put it, “as rare as hen’s teeth.”

When Hunstein enrolled in the 1970s, she was one of six female law students, the largest number of any class in Stetson Law history up to that point. “We were sort of an oddity,” she said. “The men frankly thought we were there to marry a lawyer.”

The men also could be heard grading the women by appearance, on a scale of 1 to 10. “But all the women graduated,” she said of the six in her class. Kovachevich recalls what she terms “the Stetson shuffle.” When a female student presented in class, “the fellows in the class would shuffle their feet and make that noise, like you’re on your way out of here. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience and I for the first time in my life experienced discrimination, and it was gender discrimination,” she said.

In spite of the slights, these women persevered, each believing they had to make the most of their opportunity. Kovachevich’s grandfather, an immigrant from Croatia, had urged her to study the law because of his deep love for the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. She wanted to honor his wish.

Hunstein first thought of going into law after a college aptitude test suggested she would excel in a legal or military career. Once in law school, she was determined to succeed. “It was so important to me to have this opportunity, something that I never dreamed would be available to me,” said Hunstein, who was the first in her family to graduate from college.

A common thread

All these women showed the acumen and grit to succeed. And all say Stetson has been an important part of their story.

“Without an excellent education, with all the challenges academically and professionally, where would I be?” Hunstein said. “They were there for me and they gave me the foundation to become a good lawyer, a good judge, and really honor the law.”

Luke, the retired USDA attorney, established a scholarship because she received one in her third year at Stetson Law that was crucial to helping her finish school. She wanted to make sure others would have the same opportunity. The scholarship is open to women and men.

Kovachevich has given back much to Stetson also, through an extensive judicial internship program in the federal court.

Inspiring future generations

Quince says that while she did not attend Stetson Law, “the law school was and is important to me because it was a part of the legal community that I was also a part of.”

“I don’t necessarily consider myself a pioneer,” she said, but she strongly believes in the value of women and minorities having the opportunity to succeed in areas once closed to them.

“I take pride in the fact that I was the first African American female to be appointed to both a district court of appeal and the Florida Supreme Court,” she said. “It was also an honor and a privilege to be the first African American female to head a Florida branch of government when I was the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.”

Yes, she said, these firsts were important to her. But what she really hopes is for them to be an inspiration to others. “I hope that young people will look on these accomplishments as a chance to say ‘I can do this too and more,'” she said.