On The Record - Columbus School of Law

A N O T H E R B A R R I E R B R O K E N“She knows the art of disagreeingwithout remotely being disagreeable.”could have been different if he had an education,”she says. “He explained, ‘You can do manythings in life, but you need to have an education’.”Quince grew up during the days of segregation.The U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruleagainst segregated schools in the Brown v. Boardof Education decision didn’t occur until 1954.Quince developed an interest in science andparticipated in science fairs while in high school.She intended on becoming a physician when sheentered Howard University in the mid- to late-1960s. She graduated with a B.S. degree inZoology in 1970, but was struck by the tumultuouscivil rights movement while attending thepredominantly-black school.“All across the country people were ‘sittingin.’ It was that type of event that shifted my focusfrom medicine.”Quince mulled over attending law schooland medical school and ended up taking admissionentrance examinations for both. She ultimatelychose to attend The Catholic Universityof America’s law school, which she says was herfirst integrated school.“That prepared me,” Quince recalls,“because that was the situation that I would dealwith in the workforce.”She took many constitutional law-basedcourses that she later found useful in practice. Shewas active in Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity andthe Black American Law Students Association,and was recognized for her work with the lawschool’s Neighborhood Legal Services Clinics,according to her court biography.Quince graduated with a J.D. degree in1975, but found it difficult as a black woman tofind a position at a law firm.“You get a ‘no’ to an application, you moveon to the next one,” she explains. Her tenacityJustice Quince in 2006 at an ABA meeting in Honolulu with herhusband, the Hon. Fred Buckine (right) and Dean Veryl Miles(second from left). Quince was honored by legal colleagues withthe Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, namedfor the first female lawyer in America.paid off. She ended up starting her career as arent-control hearing officer in Washington,D.C. A few years later she entered private practicein Norfolk, focusing on real estate anddomestic relations.She recalls facing prejudice in the first courtcase she handled. “I walked to the podium andthe judge said ‘Who are you? The defendant?’ ”she says. However, Quince learned not to let itset her back. If you do, she believes, “You areplaying in to someone else’s hands.”Quince opened an office and practiced civillaw when she moved to Florida in 1978. Thestate became the permanent home for her andher husband, Fred Buckine, and their twodaughters, Peggy LaVerne and Laura LaVerne.Four years later, she was hired as a prosecutorin the criminal division of the state’s AttorneyFall–Winter 2008 / C UALAWYER 27