The POWER List: Thomas Mickes

Mickes O’Toole

Thomas Mickes has practiced law for more than 35 years and serves as the firm’s chairperson.

Mickes, along with Thomas J. O’Toole Jr. founded Mickes O’Toole in 2008, and Mickes served as the managing partner until Vincent Reese took over that role in 2017.

Mickes represents more than 300 school districts, private schools, colleges and universities. He also is the firm’s lead counsel for a self-insured pool of 470 school districts in litigation of employment, civil rights and constitutional claims.

Mickes also represents Glasgow School District in an ongoing lawsuit against the Howard County Coroner’s office, which held an inquest into the suicide of a student in the school district that Mickes said “was like a grand jury in public” before it denied the school district access to open public records. The case is ongoing after opposing counsel Richard Berkley Hicks motioned for continuance following a Missouri Court of Appeals Western District appeal.

In 2016, Mickes and his team represented the School District of Jefferson City after a former journalism teacher sued for $249,000 in damages and alleged a hostile work environment and constructive discharge. In Cole County Circuit Court, the district alleged that the teacher had quit for personal reasons after misunderstanding a new role.