

Lavinia Legacy Award


The Association of Women Attorneys of Lake County is excited to announce the Lavinia Legacy Award!
The Award is named for Lavinia Sylvester Fuqua, who was born in Lake County on July 31, 1896. She graduated from Chicago Kent College of Law and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1918. She is the first known female attorney in Lake County history. She was a member of Kappa Beta Pi and worked as a County Court Reporter and Minute Clerk from 1917 until 1921. She was the President of the Altrusa Club of Waukegan from 1951 to 1952, and the President of the Seventh District Association of Wives of Illinois Lawyers from 1942 to 1943. She was a member of the Lake County Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
Lavinia was married to Okel Fuqua, and in 1919 they created Fuqua and Fuqua, which was the first known husband and wife legal team in Illinois history. Their son, Ellis Fuqua, also became a lawyer at their firm. The firm still exists today under the name of Fuqua Winter, which employed noted female Judge Diane Winter before she took the bench.
Lavinia’s sister, Laura, married Newton Eugene Finn, whose son Richard also became an attorney and founded Finn, Gieger, and Raferty. One of his partners was Frederick Geiger, who also later became a judge in Lake County. Richard’s son, also named Newton Eugene Finn, also became an attorney, and founded Finn & Finn, Ltd., which still exists. One of the current owners of Finn & Finn, Ltd. is Lavinia’s great grandniece, Anna Finn Vinson. The legacy of Lavinia and her family continue to live on in our community.
In honor of Lavinia and all of the other female attorneys who came before us, who shattered glass ceilings while balancing family lives and a commitment to giving back to the community, we have established the Lavinia Legacy Award. Each month, we will select an Award recipient to receive direct support, in the form of both funding and exposure, to smaller organizations that do so much work at the local level. We will submit a small donation to the recipient from AWALC funds and will encourage our membership to contribute additional amounts at our monthly membership meetings. We will acknowledge the recipient in our regular membership emails and through our social media, in an effort to provide them with increased exposure in the legal community.
For more information regarding this award and the criteria for selection of recipients, click on the “Contact Us” page of our website.