Levison ousted in contentious bar race

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Longtime bar leader Mark Levison lost his effort to keep his seat on the Board of Governors after injury attorney Terry Crouppen campaigned against him.

With the loss, so goes Levison’s campaign for president of The Missouri Bar.

Lawyers from St. Louis City re-elected incumbent Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, and then also picked St. Louis Circuit Judge Mark Neill; and attorneys Marie Kenyon and Nancy Mogab to the four open slots.

The Supreme Court released election results late Monday afternoon.

Kenyon is a lawyer with Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry; Mogab is an attorney at the personal injury firm Mogab & Hughes and is a member of the Appellate Judicial Commission. She’s also married to current Bar President Tom Burke.

Levison came in sixth. Incumbent William Bay also lost in his re-election effort.

Levison had been the target of an unusually public campaign by a leader of Brown & Crouppen. Crouppen has crossed swords with Levison over limits on lawyer advertising. Crouppen had fliers distributed outside St. Louis Circuit Court asking attorneys to vote for “any of the other candidates.”

Levison, a syndicated columnists whose work is published in Missouri Lawyers Media papers, was among three attorneys who threw his hat in the ring to run for vice president.

Crouppen was unavailable for comment late Monday afternoon.

In other contested races, for St. Louis County, District 9, Judge Richard Bresnahan was re-elected as was solo attorney Carol Chazen Friedman; and attorney Genevieve Frank bested Howard Shalowitz for an open seat.

Joe Rice won an open seat to represent southeastern Missouri’s District 7.  

And in Kansas City’s District 12, incumbents Stephen Bough, Dana Tippin Cutler and Walter Simpson all maintained their seats on the board, besting challenger Richard Bien.

The elections leave Friedman and fellow St. Louis County board member Lynn Ann Vogel as the only announced candidates who seek to become bar president.