Missouri Lawyers Media honors achievements from 2023 at ceremony

Staff Report//February 16, 2024//

The 2024 Missouri Lawyers Awards winners gather for a group photo at the Missouri Athletic Club in downtown St. Louis Feb. 15, 2024. (Photo by T.L. Witt)

Staff Report//February 16, 2024//

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Missouri Lawyers Media held its annual Missouri Lawyers Awards at the Missouri Athletic Club in downtown St. Louis Feb. 15. The ceremony honors the major achievements of attorneys in Missouri during the previous year, as well as attorneys who won the largest settlements, verdicts, judgments or defense wins.

2024 Missouri Lawyer of the Year recipient Michael Ketchmark of Ketchmark & McCreight told the audience how his trial team went up against a fleet of defense lawyers for the National Association of Realtors and several real estate companies and won a verdict of nearly $1.8 billion. Their class-action lawsuit attacked a longstanding practice that home sellers pay a 6 percent commission that is split between their own agent and that of the buyer. Ketchmark insists that the litigation will make it easier, not harder, to buy and sell a home, putting thousands of dollars back into the pockets of home sellers and allowing market forces and the internet to determine how buyers’ agents are compensated.

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2024 Missouri Lawyer of the Year Michael Ketchmark speaks at the Missouri Lawyers Awards on Feb. 15, 2024. (Photo by T.L. Witt)

Camille Emison, 5, and her sister Chandler, 8, look for their father’s photo with the help of their grandmother Robin Emison. (Photo by T.L. Witt)

The winners of the Top Verdicts & Settlements of 2023 gather for a group photo during the 2024 Missouri Lawyers Awards Feb. 15, 2024. (Photo by T.L. Witt)

Honoree Elizabeth Shocklee and her friends pose for a quick photo at the Missouri Lawyers Awards on Feb. 15, 2024. (Photo by T.L. Witt)

Lawyer of the year winner Michael Ketchmark and Steven Ketchmark look though the Missouri Lawyers Weekly before at the Missouri Lawyers Awards on Feb. 15, 2024. (Photo by T.L. Witt)