Nov. 17, 2025

Judge Mary Russell, ’83, honored with national Sandra Day O’Connor Award

Missouri Supreme Court judge and Mizzou Law alumna Mary Russell, ’83, has been honored by the National Judicial College with the 2025 Sandra Day O’Connor Award. This award is given annually to a judge or former judge who has demonstrated extraordinary service and commitment to justice. Russell has served two terms as chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. She was recognized for her leadership and commitment to civics education, including visiting all 46 judicial circuits and writing monthly columns to explain court processes. Russell has also been integral in creating interactive programs like “You Be the Judge” to help…

Nov. 13, 2025

Scholarship support 150 years in the making

When Dr. Maurine Hoffman Beasley decided to revive a scholarship at the University of Missouri School of Law this year, she wasn’t just making a gift in her father’s name — she was continuing a family legacy that stretches back nearly 150 years at Mizzou. “Our family has always revered the University of Missouri, going back to my grandfather and grandmother, who graduated in 1876,” Beasley said. “It was a way for our family to move up in the world.” Beasley, a 1958 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism and a retired longtime journalism professor at the University of…

June 10, 2025

Melissa Cullman Cosgrove ,’13, named U.S. Supreme Court Fellow

Melissa Cullman Cosgrove, ’13, was named a 2025-2026 U.S. Supreme Court Fellow assigned to the Federal Judicial Center, the education and research agency for the federal courts. Cosgrove joins the Supreme Court Fellows Program from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, where she was a career law clerk for the Honorable Stephen R. Welby. She previously clerked for the Honorable Stephen R. Clark and the Honorable E. Richard Webber of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. She was also an Assistant Attorney General in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. Cosgrove…

May 8, 2025

Alumni Spotlight — Meet Gretchen Myers

by Anna Sago Growing up, Gretchen Myers, ’84, always viewed her father, a trial attorney and Mizzou Law graduate, as her hero. Now, after a long and decorated legal career, Myers will return to her and her father’s alma mater to deliver this year’s Mizzou Law commencement speech. Myers always admired her dad’s career as an attorney, calling him the “real life Atticus Finch.” But it was through debate and other public speaking in grade school and high school that her path was solidified. “I loved doing it. There was something about it that I found fun and exhilarating, when…

April 17, 2025

Remembering Zack

By Anna Sago When Andy Kasnetz’s son Zack Kasnetz, ’16, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, in 2023, he and his family knew they wanted to use the tragedy to support a place that served as a launching point for their son: his alma mater Mizzou Law. “This became a really important starting point for him as an adult, both personally and professionally,” Andy said. “So, in that regard, it has a really special place in our lives.” Zack Kasnetz’s journey to law school wasn’t always linear, Andy explained. After growing up in St. Louis and attending school at the University…

March 12, 2025

$1 million gift to support students in study abroad and public interest programs

As a part of the 2025 Mizzou Giving Day, Professor Emeritus Rodney Uphoff has given a generous gift of $1 million to Mizzou Law to provide important financial support to law students pursuing transformative educational and public service experiences. Professor Uphoff’s gift will create an endowment which will fund student participation in the South Africa study abroad program, offering scholarship support to law school students to help make this invaluable global learning opportunity possible. The Uphoff Scholarship program ensures that students with a passion for legal studies and international experiences can benefit from this unique opportunity.

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 here.

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…