WJA 2023: Shari Lockhart

Partner, Evans & Dixon

Like a lot of lawyers, Shari Lockhart lost her first case.

However, unlike a lot of lawyers, it was a pro se matter. She’d been ticketed in a fender-bender.

“But the prosecutor, who later became a judge, told me that I should probably go to law school,” recalled the 51-year-old. “That’s what made me start thinking about it.”

The prosecutor had a good eye for talent. After cutting her teeth defending Second Injury Fund claims for the Attorney General’s Office, the UMKC alumnae joined Evans & Dixon as an associate. Eventually, she’d serve on its executive board and managed its Springfield office at one point.

Recognized in 2005 as an Up & Coming attorney by Missouri Lawyers Media, she has spent her entire career in workers compensation, an area she feels is imbued with a certain innate fairness.

“With workers compensation being a bench trial rather than a jury trial,” said Lockhart, who was raised in Springfield. “I feel that most folks get a very fair outcome because the attorneys and judges involved, that’s usually their specialty.”

She has tried a number of cases through the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission and the Missouri Court of Appeals and she regularly appears before the Division of Workers’ Compensation.

She also likes the people she helps, often playing an important educational role that provides training and resources to her clients, acting as an outlet of information to improve their business practices.

“Being on the defense side and representing employers and insurers, I really enjoy my clients,” Lockhart noted. “I have several clients that I started working with when I started at the firm and then some of them I have secured along the way.”

In the wider community, Lockhart serves on the board of Kids’ Chance of Missouri where she assists in fundraising for the organization which helps the children of injured workers with scholarships. Lockhart is also vice president of the Alpha Delta Pi House Corporation Board for the Missouri State University Chapter.