Up & Coming.

Up & On?

Up and Up?

I’ve been giving serious thought to changing the name of these awards.

Such ruminations are not without merit. After all, the phrase Up & Coming suggests that one who fits the title is highly likely to achieve later based on current effort. The problem with that, as I see it, is the folks highlighted in this section are succeeding now, not later.

Maybe later too, but now.

My dilemma will be evident as you read the current career status of these honorees. Each has ticked off accomplishments from a career list most of us find forever elusive or take decades to achieve. And yet each honoree has done so at 40 or younger or within the first 10 years of practice.

What’s down the road for them, likely, is phenom­enal continued achievement.

Perhaps our honored mentors are what the Up & Coming honorees have to look forward to as they peer into their crystal balls. Our featured mentors are not only achieving brilliant careers, they’re pay­ing it forward. Offering a hand up when they can. Recognizing that true success often relies on a listen­ing ear or a word of warning discovered after having walked a similar path.

The honorees you will read about in this section define what this award is really all about – new attor­neys achieving in a short time at the highest levels.

I suppose it really doesn’t matter what the title of the awards is. No one will remember that. What they will remember is what the attorneys have accom­plished – at any point in their careers.

Liz Irwin

Publisher, Missouri Lawyers Media