Laura Denvir Stith
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Laura Denvir Stith is a justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. She was appointed to this position in 2001 by then-governor Bob Holden, a Democrat. Her current term as a judge on the court expires in 2014.
Stith is a 1971 graduate of John Burroughs School, St. Louis. She studied at the University of Madrid through a program administered by the Institute of European Studies, and earned a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Tufts University, Boston, in 1975. She later earned her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., in 1978.
Legal career
Justice Stith was an Iglauer Fellowship Intern in Washington D.C. for Senator Thomas Eagleton in 1973, and would clerk for Supreme Court of Missouri Judge Robert E. Seiler from 1978 to 1979. She would become first an associate and then partner with the Shook, Hardy & Bacon law firm, Kansas City between 1980 and 1994. At the firm she co-founded the Appellate Practice Group.
Justice Stith was appointed to the Supreme Court in March 2001. She was subsequently retained in office at the November 2002 general election for a 12-year term expiring December 31, 2014. Before her appointment to the supreme court, she served as a judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, from 1994 to March 2001. Justice Stith was the chief justice of the Supreme Court from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2009.[1]
Judicial selection
The Missouri Plan came under criticism in 2007 when insiders speculated that the chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court had greased the wheels for a friend.
Stith headed the seven-member Appellate Judicial Commission that was charged with selecting three candidates for an opening on the Missouri Supreme Court. Two of the commissions's choices were considered liberal Democrats, and had been appointed to the bench by the late Mel Carnahan. No way could the governor pick either of them. The third candidate was Patricia Breckenridge, who had served with Stith on the appellate court in Kansas City.
Missouri Republicans objected because Breckenridge's husband gave money to Democrats, and she was seen more as a feminist than a conservative. The Commission essentially gave the governor only one candidate. If the governor refused to make a selection, the commission was empowered to make it for him. This prompted talk of doing away with selection committees and going to elections.[2]
Professional memberships
- Member, The Missouri Bar, 1978 to present; Chair, Civil Practice and Procedure Committee; Vice chair, Civil Practice and Procedure Committee
- Member, American Bar Association (ABA)
- Member, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (KCMBA); Vice chair, Tort Law Committee
- Member, Association for Women Lawyers (AWL) of Greater Kansas City; President, Member, board of directors
- Missouri Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, 2004 to present
Civic activities
- Founding director, Lawyers Encouraging Academic Performance (LEAP), an inter-bar lawyers’ public service organization in Kansas City
- Mentor and tutor to young students at St. Vincent’s Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City
Awards and honors
- Editor, Law and Policy in International Business Journal, Georgetown University Law Center
- Distinguished Non-Alumnus Award, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, 2006
External links
- Judge Stith's remarks concerning Missouri's nonpartisan merit selection plan for judges
- Official website of the Missouri Supreme Court
References
- ↑ Justice Stith's Bio from the Missouri Courts website
- ↑ McClellan, Bill, The politics of selecting judges should be out in open ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, Wednesday, Apr. 16 2008
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