The POWER List 2023: Keith A. Cutler

James W. Tippin & Associates, Kansas City

In 1999, Keith Cutler became the first Black Missouri attorney to be awarded the Lon O. Hocker Award. He’s used those considerable trial skills to defend clients ranging from a police officer accused of using excessive force to a teacher alleged to have sexually harassed a female student.

Cutler is the president-elect of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, as well as a member of the Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee, The Missouri Bar Legal Education Committee and the American Bar Association House of Delegates. Last year, Cutler led the disciplinary hearing panel that recommended a reprimand for St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, which the Missouri Supreme Court accepted.

Of course, Cutler is best known to the wider world for his role in “Couples Court with the Cutlers,” a show in which he his wife and law partner Dana Tippin Cutler dispensed relationship advice to troubled couples.

Cutler earned his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1989.