Dec. 10, 2024

Alumni Spotlight — Meet Arsenio Mims

By Anna Sago In between his successful three years at Mizzou Law, where he served as the first Black editor-in-chief of any law journal (the Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law), and his acceptance of a federal clerkship, Arsenio Mims was facing a difficult two months. Despite his success as a student, he had just become a full-time single parent of his son and his younger brother, and he was unable to begin employment at his clerkship until Sept. 1. But he also needed to put food on the table. “I went to [Mizzou Law financial aid adviser Jeff Turnbull’s]…

Nov. 22, 2024

Mizzou Law alumna is first Black female prosecutor elected in Jackson County

Melesa Johnson, ’14, made history by becoming the first Black woman to be elected as Jackson County, Mo. prosecutor. To read more, visit: https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/melesa-johnson-makes-history-as-1st-black-woman-elected-jackson-county-prosecutor…

Nov. 19, 2024

Following family footsteps for child and family justice

By Anna Sago Chuck and Hope Adamson have made the Child and Family Justice Clinic a family affair. Growing up, Hope Adamson has always had a close relationship with her dad, Chuck. It’s a relationship that only deepened after Hope, then a political science major at the University of Missouri, asked to shadow the elder Adamson, who heads the employment trial division at the Missouri Attorney General’s office, during a trial. “She comes out to this trial that ran six, seven days … so this was a long civil trial,” he said. “She saw everything … and at the end…

Oct. 11, 2024

Alumni Spotlight — Meet Erin Webber

By Anna Sago Growing up with her father, then a state court judge in Memphis, Mo., Erin Webber, ’96, remembers a different kind of dinnertime chats: pre-trial conferences. “He was appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to handle a lot of cases around the state that were tricky. He was a circuit judge in small three rural counties, so he had time, and was an excellent jurist,” she recalled. “Back in the day, he would invite the prosecuting attorney and the defense lawyer over to our house, and they’d knock things out over whatever we were having for dinner.” Her…

Sep. 23, 2024

LLM Alumni Spotlight — Meet Jose Abel Quezada

Jose Abel Quezada, ’24, has known that he wanted to dedicate his life to solving legal disputes with alternative dispute resolution (ADR) since he began his career as a law clerk working on complex arbitration cases. Now working in ADR as an associate at Cacheaux, Cavasos & Newton in his native Monterrey, Mexico, Quezada can point back to that earlier time as a turning point in his career path. “I realized the potential of ADR in solving legal disputes; considering litigation is overall useful but it is definitely not always the best way to solve a dispute,” Quezada said. “I…

Sep. 4, 2024

Alumni Spotlight — Meet Kristen Evans

Going into law school at the University of Missouri, Kristen Evans, ’22, already had her eyes on a coveted position after graduation: a federal clerkship. “I felt that it would be really resourceful to do,” Evans said. “[Judicial clerks] gain a lot of knowledge about how the courts work, and that includes learning the court system, learning how to cater your arguments, your motions, your orders, to judges’ preferences.” However, Evans felt discouraged by the pervasive message that clerkships were out of her reach. Outside of Evans’ friends and mentors at Mizzou Law, many emphasized the exclusivity of federal clerkships.

Aug. 12, 2024

Alumni Spotlight — Meet Keesha-Lu Abrahams-Mitra

by Anna Sago As the first female senior vice president and general counsel at State Farm, Keesha-Lu Abrahams-Mitra, ‘89, still finds herself relying on a skill she learned on her very first day of law school at Mizzou. “My very first day of law school — civil procedure,” Abrahams-Mitra said, “I happened to have Professor Carl Esbeck. My maiden name was Abrahams and he called on students alphabetically. So Pennoyer vs. Neff is indelibly etched in my mind, not necessarily positively.” Though Abrahams-Mitra can now laugh at her first-day cold call blunder, it taught her a valuable lesson that…

June 12, 2024

Mizzou Law hosting alumni happy hour events across the state this summer

This summer, Mizzou Law is hosting a series of networking happy hours for our alumni around the state of Missouri and we are coming to an area near you! See the following dates and locations to determine which happy hour event is closest to you! Registration is FREE but requested for planning purposes. We hope to see you this summer! July 9: Springfield Alumni Happy HourThe Hotel Vandivort, 305 E Walnut St, Springfield, MO 65806 July 17: St. Louis Alumni Happy HourMoonrise Hotel, 6177 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112 Aug. 1: Columbia Alumni Happy HourLaw Library…