Kentucky Supreme Court justice and University of Kentucky alumna Pamela Goodwine spoke on her career in law and life story for UK students.

Goodwine spoke at the UK Bachelor to Law Undergraduate Education (BLUE) Society’s event in the J. David Rosenberg College of Law on Wednesday, Feb. 26.

Along with being the first woman in Kentucky history to serve on each level of the state’s court system, Goodwine said she is the first African American woman to sit on the state’s Supreme Court.

President of the UK BLUE Society Aliyyah Sadek said the goal of the event was to welcome Goodwine to campus and allow her to share her background and perspective to students pursuing careers in law.

“We’re here to listen . . . ‘What motivated her to pursue a seat on the Kentucky Supreme Court? What is that experience like?’” Sadek said.

Goodwine grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. She said she wanted to work in law ever since she was in high school. Goodwine was encouraged by a teacher to talk to someone working in law and went to a courthouse to find someone to learn from who looked like her.

“There was no one. There were no women, no African Americans,” Goodwine said. “There were just old white men who didn’t seem really happy about the fact that I was even inquiring about the legal profession.”

Goodwine said she got comments from the people at the courthouse asking why she did not want to take a job as a nurse or a teacher. When she went home and told her foster parents about how she was questioned, she said they encouraged her to pursue what she wanted to do.

“My daddy always told me, ‘No matter what path you take, always reach for the top,’” Goodwine said. “So I saw fit to be a justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court.”

Graduating as the valedictorian of her class, Goodwine said she was given a full-ride scholarship to any college in the country. Before starting college, her father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, so Goodwine forfeited her scholarship to take care of him.

After her father’s death, Goodwine began working as a court stenographer, eventually leading her to take a job as a court reporter in Lexington when she was 19 years old. She began studying at UK in the Gatton College of Business and Economics in 1980.

Goodwine studied at UK part-time while working as a court reporter, but she said she soon started facing more troubles.

“Six months later (after she started college), in April of ‘80, I came home from a job in Harlan County and got the phone call that no child wants to get,” Goodwine said. “My mother had been shot and killed.”

Goodwine said she then experienced the criminal justice system from the perspective of the victim’s family. She said her mother was killed by her uncle who was found mentally incompetent at his trial and did not serve any time in prison.

“I sought solace (after her mom died), I tried to find a church home because I was raised in the church,” Goodwine said. “If not for that church family, I don’t know what I would have done.”

During that time, Goodwine said she had become extremely sick and had to withdraw from school and stop working. 

She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and struggled to get treatment and surgeries because she didn’t have any health insurance.

When Goodwine left the hospital after undergoing surgery and rehabilitation, she started school at UK again.

Goodwine was able to finish her undergraduate studies in 1991 and graduated from UK’s J. David Rosenberg College of Law in 1994. She said she left eager to become a judge.

To become a district court judge Goodwine said she would have to first be appointed by the governor and then elected.

“Everyone was like, ‘There’s no way you’re going to get an appointment because you don’t know anything about the political process,’” Goodwine said.

Goodwine got the appointment and won a seat as a Fayette County district court judge in 1999. 

She worked in the district court for four years and said she rose through the Kentucky judicial system serving on the Fayette County Circuit Court, the Kentucky Court of Appeals and in 2024, the Kentucky Supreme Court, where she had wanted to be for years.

“To know that something you’ve wanted your entire life has now come true is an amazing thing,” Goodwine said.

After the talk, students attending the event got up to greet Goodwine and ask questions. Secretary of UK BLUE Ben McBride said he was impressed by Goodwine’s story.

“My biggest takeaway from her speech was just how much you can do with the level of determination that she clearly had, I mean, she has no quit,” McBride said. “Her experience as a judge has kind of made me think about the possibility of me becoming a judge someday, so she’s very inspirational for me.”