Missouri Lawyers Media honors Women’s Justice Award winners | Photos

Missouri Lawyers Media honored dozens of Missouri attorneys before their friends, families and colleagues as part of its 2025 Women’s Justice Awards. 

Now in its 27th year, these awards recognize “women across Missouri who have demonstrated leadership, integrity, service, sacrifice and accomplishment in improving the quality of justice and exemplifying the highest ideals of the legal profession.”

RELATED: Honoree photos from the 2025 WJA event

Approximately 280 attended the ceremony which took place on April 10 at the Ameristar Resort & Casino in St. Charles.

A reception and dinner at the event preceded the program during which Publisher Susan Bocamazo announced Mary Fox, the outgoing director of the Missouri State Public Defenders Office, as woman of the year. Fox has served in this role since 2020 and is described by her peers as being “the face of justice.”

“Poverty is the largest driver of criminal system involvement and almost 80 percent of the accused are poor, so that makes public defense very expensive,” Fox said.  “Missouri public defenders have been challenged to fight for the necessary funding for our system and we have really made great strides in obtaining that funding, but we have far to go, because public defenders are challenged every day by laws that impose mandatory minimums on our clients, that allow state executions, that place clients who suffer from mental health disorders in jails, and that impose unreasonable costs and fines and fees. So, it takes people. And it takes resources to provide effective representation in that environment, but it can be very rewarding to be a public defender.”

Fox is retiring later this year.

In addition to woman of the year, attorneys were recognized in the following categories: Corporate, general practitioner, innovation & technology, leaders of tomorrow, litigation, pro bono, public service, transactional practitioner, mentor and special service.

“While parity has not been realized in the profession, great strides have been made since we first started honoring women,” Bocamazo said. “Their contributions are varied but they all share one characteristic — they are truly excellent lawyers. Tonight, we are celebrating some of the most prestigious legal professionals in this state. They are women who hold positions of strength, who lead firms, who serve their communities, aspire to a better future, support the legal profession and are teaching the next generation of lawyers.”