Law Students

Women of the Missouri Court: First Event to feature the only four women who have served on the Missouri Supreme Court

By SDevlin

In all of Missouri?s history, only four women have served on the state Supreme Court.  The Women?s Law Association (WLA) at the University of Missouri School of Law hosted the first event ever to feature and honor these four women.  On Wednesday November 12, 2008 Judge Ann Covington, Judge Mary Russell, Judge Patricia Breckenridge, and current Justice Laura Stith sat on a panel together at the Law School to discuss the journey women have in the legal profession and future progress. 

The judges spoke for over an hour to a courtroom packed with law students and professors.  In all the years of statehood, Missouri has only had four women sit on its highest court.  Yet, all four of those women have been in my lifetime.  That has to provide tremendous hope and aspiration to young female attorneys and law students.  All four women attribute the newfound diversity in the state's judiciary to the Missouri Court Plan, a nonpartisan system of appointing judges, rather than by political appointment or election.

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Full post as published by Ms. JD on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).