Missouri Lawyers Media celebrates Women’s Justice Award winners

Summary

• Missouri Lawyers Media honored 65 attorneys at Women’s Justice Awards.
• Event held in St. Charles with legal community in attendance.
• Awards recognize excellence, integrity and service in law.
• Honorees included leaders across multiple legal practice areas.

Missouri Lawyers Media honored 65 Missouri attorneys before their friends, families and colleagues as part of its 2026 Women’s Justice Awards.

Now in its 28th year, these awards recognize women who “have a demonstrated track record of excellence, integrity and service that helps those impacted by the legal system.”

Approximately 280 attended the ceremony which took place on April 16 at the Ameristar Resort & Casino in St. Charles. 

A reception and dinner at the event preceded the program during which Publisher Susan Bocamazo announced Betsy Ledgerwood, the clerk of the Missouri Supreme Court, as woman of the year. Mary Fox, the 2025 women of the year honoree, introduced Ledgerwood.

“The woman of the year is someone who stands out in our profession. The woman of the year is someone who makes an extraordinary difference in the work that we do. The woman exemplifies the highest ideals of the legal profession … the woman of the year is a woman who merits recognition because of her work, but doesn’t actively pursue that recognition,” Fox said, “and the 2026 woman of the year is the personification of those criteria.”

Ledgerwood has served clerk of the court since 2017, the first woman to do so.

“I grew up with amazing people who never let it occur to me that I could not do something. Well into my 30s I thought I might actually rule the world, but to get to have a piece of this small part of the world that I get to rule in someway, I’m very appreciative,” Ledgerwood said when accepting the award.

Several members of the Supreme Court were in attendance, including Chief Justice W. Brent Powell, Judge Mary R. Russell, Judge Ginger K. Gooch and Judge Kelly C. Broniec.

“I’m so thankful to be here … and to be a part of this judicial and legal community that if you asked me at 25 when I graduated law school, I wouldn’t thought there was a place for me here,” she said. “To all of those who don’t know what you bring, you bring so much … And we really make a difference when we all work together.”

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