If a job perk’s value were to be measured only on a smile meter, I clearly have the perk of all perks.

I’m the one who gets to call the Up & Coming honorees and tell them they’re about to be honored. OK, I’m not the only peak perk holder here. Our editor, Fred Ehrlich, joins me in my perking as we divvy up the list and begin to reach out.

So with 58 honorees again this year, that’s 29 for Fred and 29 for me.

And those calls, each of them, go something like this:

“Hi, I’m Liz Irwin, publisher with Missouri Lawyers Media. I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to share with you that out of hundreds of nominations from across the state – an honor in itself – you have been selected as one of our Up & Coming honorees for 2017.”

And then there’s usually startled silence followed by …

“Wow.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Seriously, you just made my day. My week. My year. Is this for real? You have no idea what kind of a day I was having before you called….”

And all the while I’m offering much assurance that I am in fact the publisher of MLM and that they did in fact earn this prestigious honor, I’m smiling.

Actually, I’m smiling now just writing this.

Each year, Missouri Lawyers Weekly receives scores of nominations for these illustrious honors. This year, it was score times about 15. Seriously, this was the highest number of nominations we’ve ever received. And we pore through the achievements of each. There are so many worthy candidates it is a daunting and difficult task to narrow it to just the 58 we are honoring this year.

The men and women 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.

And we also bring to the forefront a group of seasoned attorneys who teach and advise the new ones. 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.

What’s down the road for this latest Up & Coming class is, likely, phenomenal continued achievement. And then at some point the mentee becomes the mentor. Then the cycle begins anew.

In the meantime, I’ll keep smiling. After all, I’m just a year away from dialing up the next Up & Coming honoree.

Liz Irwin

Publisher, Missouri Lawyers Media