Missouri Lawyer of the Year

A lawyer for a political year

Although there’s no good way to pick Missouri’s Lawyer of the Year, there are some bad ways.

It shouldn’t go by fiat to the lawyer who won the largest jury award or completed the biggest merger. Big firm lawyers have no more right to the designation than hard-working solos (like last year’s honoree).

And those who seek out the media spotlight are not by that predilection any more worthy than those who shun attention.

Which all makes the selection process rather ticklish. The selection team huddles in a little room filled with nomination forms and hashes it out. No shoes were thrown, but there were some impassioned debates for and against some of the nominees.

In the end, in this political year, the award went to Chuck Hatfield, who found himself at the center of most of the big political fights.

You’ll read more about Hatfield, so I won’t go on about his many qualifications for this honor. Nor will I debate the relative merits of the other Lawyer of the Year finalists.

I’ll just note how fortunate we are to have so many lawyers who have done so much for their clients and Missouri in 2008.

 

Richard Jackoway

Editor,

Missouri Lawyers Weekly

 

2008 Missouri Lawyer of the Year articles:

Chuck Hatfield: “The go-to guy over the next four years”

Legal clinics director pushes through citizenship applications

First Amendment passion fuels ACLU director

Lathrop & Gage attorney keeps railways on green track

City attorney leads $35 million business project

Passanise, Sheppard helped court plan pass

Lawyer became flashpoint in open records dispute

An intellectual property slugger

Harris finishes as bar president with no regrets

Dedication to justice in Iraq

Work on merger pushed company into Fortune 500

Lawyer was leader in effort to overhaul court plan

Assistant AG lands big verdict against pharmaceutical giants

Koster’s big gamble to switch parties paid off

Nixon takes hard work to state’s top spot