Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, will speak Thursday at the State Bar Association conference in Madison.

O’Connor, who retired in January 2006, will speak about civics education and judicial independence to 1000 or more members of the Wisconsin Bar, said Tom Solberg, spokesperson for the association.

Her legacy since leaving the Supreme Court is one of advocacy for issues near and dear to the hearts of most attorneys, Solberg said.

“She has become a very lively, recognizable person in regards to civics education and judicial independence since retiring from the Supreme Court,” Solberg said. “She has exceptional expertise on these issues. We think she will be able to rally our people to the cause of [the issues].”

Solberg believes the conference will serve as an educational opportunity for its members in terms of legal education systems.

O’Connor was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981 after graduating from Stanford Law School in 1952 and holding various positions involving law and politics in Arizona.

O’Connor was a moderate, pragmatic justice when she served on the Supreme Court, said Andrew Coan, University of Wisconsin law professor.

Her legacy probably lies in two of her most significant decisions, Coan said.

“More generally, her legacy lies in her case-by-case approach. She had an instinct for political compromise,” Coan said.

In the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey case, O’Connor joined the plurality opinion of the court to uphold the constitutional right to have an abortion that was established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case.

In the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger case, O’Connor wrote the majority opinion of the court to uphold the affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan Law School. Grutter, a Michigan resident, was denied admission to the Law School and felt she had been discriminated against on the basis of race.