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Springfield attorney and prominent member of the legal community Virginia Fry died late Sunday night, according to a news release from the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association. She was 64.
Fry practiced law for 38 years and was known as a “lawyer’s lawyer,” garnering respect from those on all sides of the bench and from across the state.
Woman of the Year: Virginia Fry
She was the first female president of the Springfield bar in 1994 and is so far the only woman to receive that organization’s Distinguished Attorney Award. Her honors and accolades include being named in September as Legacy Adviser by the Springfield Business Journal. Missouri Lawyers Weekly named Fry its Woman of the Year for the 2015 Women’s Justice Awards.
“She was a trailblazer, a role model and a legal legend,” reads the news release, written on behalf of Fry’s family.
Much of Fry’s career was spent with Husch Blackwell’s Springfield office, where she previously served as managing partner, and was a member of the firm’s healthcare, life sciences and education group. Fry represented higher education institutions, as well as public school districts, and regularly advised school boards, trustees and administrators on legal matters including hiring, student rights and discipline, civil rights and constitutional issues.
“She was a person of great business judgment and never hesitated to share her perspective with the group,” said Husch Blackwell Chairman Greg Smith and Chief Executive Paul Eberle in a joint statement. “People listened when she spoke because they knew her views were informed by rich experience, intelligence and integrity.”
Fry grew up on a dairy farm in the south central Missouri town of Mountain Grove, and had always planned to be an attorney, according to a 2015 profile in Missouri Lawyers Weekly. She earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in business administration from Missouri State University before attending law school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
After graduating from law school in 1980, she worked at the firm of Woolsey Fisher, originally planning a career in taxation and finance law. Instead, Fry discovered she was gifted as a litigator. She later worked at Blackwell Sanders, where she was an equity partner until it merged with Husch Blackwell. She worked with at the megafirm for the remainder of her career.
In the profile of Fry, Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Nancy Steffen Rahmeyer described her longtime friend and colleague as a “lawyer’s lawyer” who had a knack for attracting and keeping clients, as well as developing young talent. She had a calm demeanor while carrying a lot of clout.
Attorney Virginia Fry, center, accepts her award as the Woman of the Year at the 2015 WJA awards banquet at the Four Seasons Hotel in St. Louis Thursday April 30th. Fry is an attorney with Husch Blackwell in Springfield, Mo. Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Russell made the introduction and stands in back holding her flowers.
“She has good common sense and she is liked by her clients,” Rahmeyer said at the time. “She isn’t someone who plays fast and loose with the law.”
Despite her prominence, Fry was known as someone who was reluctant to self-promote. When she received her honor as Woman of the Year, she said she hadn’t intended on becoming a legendary litigator known for her intellect as well as a mentor for female attorneys.
“It just worked out that way,” she said at the time.
While attending law school, she met her husband John Pratt when Fry was assisting on a criminal case and Pratt represented a co-defendant, according to the MLW profile.
Fry’s community involvement included sitting on the Missouri State University Board of Governors, for which she recently served as chair; serving as co-chair of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Visioning Committee; and serving on the Springfield Board of Public Utilities. Fry, who died of cancer according to the news release, was also on the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks’ Board of Directors and president of the Visiting Nurses Association.
Pratt is a partner at the Springfield family-law firm of Pratt Grisham, where his son Brennan is an associate. Fry and Pratt also have a daughter, Jordan, and a stepdaughter whose name was unavailable. John Pratt is the 2018 president of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association.
“We loved her, she was part of our family here,” Pratt Grisham Associate Andrew Scholz said.
In addition to her husband and son, Fry is survived by her daughter Jordan Goth and son-in-law Nolan, of College Station, Texas; two stepdaughters, Stephanie Pratt and Kristi Stiles; her son’s fiancée, Victoria Marszalik; her brother David Fry and his wife Teresa, and her brother Dwight Fry and his wife Lori, all of Mountain Grove; and nieces and nephews.
Services were planned for Nov. 24 at Kingsway United Methodist Church in Springfield.
The family suggests memorial contributions to the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks, the Missouri State University Foundation and College of the Ozarks.
