Congratulations to Mavis Thompson and Keith Williamson on being named as the 2023 Legal Pioneers by the Minorities in the Legal Profession (MILP) Section!

The Missouri Childrens Division (CD) is in a crisis. CD employs an insufficient number of case managers to handle abuse and neglect cases involving the children and the families of our community. Those who continue to work for CD are overworked and underpaid.

I want to extend my congratulations to each and every one of you on behalf of the Women in the Legal Profession (WILP) Section. I am so proud of you. I am elated to share this profession with you. I am so excited to see you begin your careers with such enthusiasm and unique perspectives. What an absolute honor and privilege it is to practice law.

The loss of the Hon. Ruth Bader-Ginsberg was tremendous, and it was felt by women throughout the legal profession and United States equally. She was an inspiration to us all, serving diligently on the U.S. Supreme Court for 27 years. If you are familiar with her path to get there, you know it was not easy.

Life truly is an adventure for Amy Rebecca Johnson, whether she is cooking, working out, practicing yoga or the law, spending time with her husband and their pets, or learning everything possible about other cultures.

The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) recently launched an exciting new online platform designed to facilitate pro bono opportunities for lawyers throughout our community. The platform matches clients needing help with lawyers willing and able to provide lifechanging services to these clients, ultimately bettering the community through the generosity of the lawyers who participate.

Twice a year, I travel to Washington, D.C., as part of my board obligations for the American Association for Justice. I always carve out time to strap on my running shoes and take the same walk: my hotel to the White House to the Lincoln Memorial to the World War II Memorial to the Washington Monument down Constitution Avenue around the U.S. Capitol to the Supreme Court and back to my hotel.

The Missouri Judicial Performance Review Committee has released its performance findings for 52 nonpartisan judges who will be up for retention in the Nov. 8, 2022, general election. Additionally, the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) has made available "public information about the qualifications of judicial candidates and judges seeking retention."  For your convenience, we've compiled the reviews relevant to St. Louis region voters in this post.

We will tackle polarization and dwindling public trust in the system, and what we can do about it as lawyers, later in the year. For now, the best place to start is, well, the start. The singular question that has plagued me in my mission to discover what lawyers should be doing to support the Constitution is how are lawyers supposed to collectively support the Constitution when we are also tasked with disputing each other in Court as to how that very same Constitution should be interpreted?

The Saint Louis Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, has released its 2021 Annual Report.