WJA 2023: Inez J. Ross

Senior Attorney, OnderLaw, St. Louis

Inez Ross can certainly speak to the challenges female attorneys face in splitting time between career and family.

When her daughter was just a few months old, Ross would often take her into the office when she’d have to go to court. One day, she returned to find her baby fast asleep in a banker’s file box.

“[The staff] were like, ‘oh, isn’t she cute?’” recalled Ross.

Still, Ross took it as a sign she needed to establish her own firm so she could spend more time with her child.  The 60-year-old Bootheel native did that for nearly a decade and a half, part of a successful career that also saw her work everywhere from the Missouri Department of Social Services to the corporate offices at Centene.

It’s been a whirlwind ride for Ross, a Howard University graduate who loved reading while growing up in a poor farming family and told her mom she wanted to fight injustice at age five.

“They’ve always sort of lifted me up,” she said of her relatives. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my family.”

Ross’s long career has included work as a campaign manager for state representative Hope Whitehead, a role which saw her successfully argue a matter before the St. Louis City Board of Elections regarding campaign materials used by an opponent. She also worked as a contract attorney for the St. Louis City Counselor’s Office in guardian ad litem matters and spent time as an adjunct professor teaching business law at Missouri Baptist University.

Since 2021, she’s been a fixture at OnderLaw as a part of the personal injury team. Her cases now include product liability work regarding CPAP and BiPAP devices as well as litigation over potential toxicity in hair relaxer.

“She is a strong advocate on behalf of clients in pre-trial proceedings and alternative dispute resolution,” writes her nominator. “An excellent negotiator, she is often able to resolve complex matters with opposing counsel and get good results for her clients.”