Thank you to BAMSL President Bob Tomaso for allowing me to take up this space this month so I may honor the BAMSL members who served during my BAMSL presidency. It is an honor and a privilege to finally be able to recognize and award these individuals for their volunteerism during the 2020-21 bar year.

Join the BAMSL team (in-person or virtually) at the 2021 Biz Dash 5K run/walk on September 2.

As courts work their way through the logistics of bringing back the "normal" that we knew before the global pandemic, one question stays ever-present in my head: Why?

Mary Gordon is an incredible volunteer lawyer. She has provided truly excellent pro bono legal work to Legal Services of Eastern Missouri's (LSEM) Neighborhood Vacancy Initiative (NVI) since the program began in 2018. Her work has been outstanding and has changed lives and strengthened neighborhoods.

The Bench & Bar Conference provides an unparalleled opportunity to network and socialize with other attorneys and judges. The last Bench & Bar I attended gave me the chance to build relationships with several new colleagues and spend quality time with judges outside of the courtroom.

Ransom is the first African American woman appointed to the Supreme Court, and only the fifth woman to join the Court. She was selected from a pool of 25 applicants, and Parson selected Ransom from a panel that included Judge Don Burrell, Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District, and Judge William Corrigan, Jr., St. Louis County Circuit Court. Ransom replaces Judge Laura Denvir Stith, who retired in March.

Spiritual Well-Being is defined by the Institute for Well-Being in Law as developing a sense of meaningfulness and purpose in all aspects of life.

Who is ready to finally get the chance to head to the Lake of the Ozarks for a fun-filled BAMSL Bench & Bar Conference? Given what we have seen so far as we return to in-person events, I think that BAMSL members are excited and ready to get out and network and socialize with their colleagues.

Though most of us are now settled into this new virtual office format, the path was difficult for young lawyers in a different way. As the online presence of firms solidified, other concerns began to creep into the minds of legal professionals stemming from the pandemic.

Last spring, it was COVID time. We were all trying to figure out what the heck happened. We had heard about pandemics. We had read about Ebola, Zika, H1N1 (swine flu), and SARS, but in the United States, they were more words than realities. Now all of a sudden we were trying to figure out what to do. Should we wear masks to the grocery store and/or anytime we ventured outside? How many times can someone wash their hands, and why are people buying so much toilet paper?