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By Tanner O’Neal Riley
The Mizzou Law classes of 1968 and 2018 don’t share many memories. They took different exams, read different casebooks and probably complained about different professors. But on Oct. 17, they shared a room, a meal and plenty of conversation.
Mizzou Law alumni from across the state and beyond came back to Columbia for the school’s All-Class Reunion. The day started with the 2026 Alumni Awards Brunch in the Mizzou Law Library in Hulston Hall.
It was the kind of crowd you can only find at a law school reunion. Federal judges swapped stories with county prosecutors. Guardians ad litem traded business cards with named partners. Solo practitioners compared notes with Big Law attorneys, and faculty members caught up with students they hadn’t seen in years. Some guests had graduated decades before the newest alumni in the room were born. Nobody seemed to mind.
Alumni Awards
Dean Paul Litton welcomed guests before the school recognized this year’s Alumni Awards winners:
- Citation of Merit, given to up to two alumni each year for distinguished professional achievement, service to the legal profession and commitment to the law school: Judge Philip Hess, ‘83, of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, and Robert L. Langdon, ‘72.
- Distinguished Recent Alumni Award, for a graduate from the past 15 years who has shown exceptional achievement, leadership, service or promise early in their career: Paige Wheeler, ‘18.
- Honorary Order of the Barristers Award, which is presented to a graduate of Mizzou Law whose career reflects extraordinary achievement in the law, the judiciary, legal scholarship, or public service, and whose accomplishments exemplify the highest ideals of the legal profession: Heidi Doerhoff Vollet, ‘00.
- Distinguished Non-Alumnus Award, for someone who didn’t graduate from Mizzou Law but has had a significant and lasting impact on the legal profession, public service, education or the school: Professor Emeritus Douglas E. Abrams
- Honorary Order of the Coif, for a graduate whose career reflects extraordinary achievement in the law, the judiciary, legal scholarship or public service and who exemplifies the highest ideals of the legal profession: Jeffrey Q. McCarther, ’09.
For Bob Langdon, the honor was simple.
“It comes from a place I love, and so to be honored by a place you love is wonderful,” he said.
Langdon, a trial lawyer with Langdon & Emison in Lexington, was introduced by his law partner, Kent Emison. He said he never planned on spending his career in a courtroom.
“I had no idea that I’d end up being a trial lawyer when I first started,” Langdon said. “I was wanting to be a politician. Then I worked for a politician, and I didn’t want to be a politician. So I just fell in love with trying cases.”
His advice for future law students: “Live out your dreams. And, you know, think big.”
Wheeler said being honored alongside so many accomplished alumni meant a lot, especially since she isn’t originally from Missouri.
“I knew after visiting here, this place felt like home, and I’m just so proud to be an alum,” she said.
She also pushed back on law school’s cutthroat reputation.
“Don’t get me wrong, everyone’s trying to do their best, but it’s the collaborative nature here and the network that comes with being a Mizzou Law alum,” Wheeler said. “It’s truly priceless.”
Unlike some lawyers, she won’t talk anyone out of law school.
“I would always encourage people to attend law school because getting a law degree can open up so many doors,” she said.
A chief justice in the library
Chief Justice Brent Powell of the Supreme Court of Missouri, a 1996 graduate, said the day gave him a chance to reconnect with old friends and see how much the school has changed. He was especially struck by the room he was sitting in.
“I can’t even believe the library,” Powell said. “It’s completely different from when I was here.”
He said coming back is also about giving back.
“I think it’s important to give back to the school and make sure we continue the strong tradition that the law school has had, not just for Missouri lawyers, but nationwide,” Powell said.
And for any kid in rural Missouri who might want his job someday, Powell’s answer was simple.
“Do it. Do it, do it,” he said. “Especially if he or she is in a rural, outstate Missouri somewhere, we really need lawyers there, and we really need them to step up and serve their communities.”
Powell said his wife comes from a small North Missouri community where there may be just one lawyer left in the whole county. His offer to anyone thinking about the law: “…call me and talk to me, and I will make sure it happens.”
Country lawyers and civil procedure
Powell wasn’t the only one making the case for rural practice. Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Charles E. “Sketch” Rendlen III, ‘76, knows small-town law firsthand. The Hannibal native joined his family’s law firm, started by his grandfather, right after graduating from Mizzou Law. Over more than 25 years there, he worked his way up from associate to managing partner. The firm also produced a Missouri Supreme Court chief justice and a circuit judge, both Rendlen’s uncles. In 2003, he left to become U.S. trustee for the region covering Arkansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Three years later, he was appointed to the bankruptcy bench for the Eastern District of Missouri, where he served until retiring in 2020.
Rendlen bemoaned his class photo, saying he looked like he’d “just wandered in from Harpo’s.” He had not.
Rendlen and Mizzou Law Professor Bailey Barnes swapped stories about starting out in rural practice. They also found an unexpected thing in common: a love of civil procedure.
“If you can’t do civil procedure, you can’t do the law,” Rendlen said.
That’s why rural practice matters so much, he said. Small-town lawyers spend their time in courtrooms, and they learn how to read a judge.
“Some of the best lawyers I know are rural lawyers,” he said.
Advice that never expires
Conversations like that one happened all over the room. Between plates, people traded war stories from their first trials and long-ago exams. Older alumni pointed out where their favorite study spots used to be, and some of those spots are now unrecognizable. Classmates who hadn’t seen each other in decades picked up right where they left off. Laughter carried across the library more than once. Plenty of business cards changed hands, and so did plenty of advice.
Some of the best advice came from alumni who had been where the new graduates are now. Lara Underwood, ‘04, who runs a family and juvenile law practice in Jefferson City, stopped to talk with a 2026 graduate about the part of the job they don’t teach in class.
“Make sure you have healthy coping mechanisms,” she said. “The work that you’re doing is so important, but you have to make sure you take care of yourself.”
That’s the thing about a Mizzou Law education. The lessons keep coming long after graduation, and sometimes they come from someone a few seats down at brunch.
Game time at the Rock M Club
After brunch, the party moved to Memorial Stadium and the new Farmer Companies Rock M Club. The 300-person club sits at field level, tucked right under Rock M hill. It’s part of the $250 million Memorial Stadium Centennial Project, which renovated the north end zone ahead of the stadium’s 100th season.
The room was packed. Alumni filled up on food, picked up Mizzou Law merch and kept the conversations going while the Tigers played on the screens.
The scoreboard didn’t cooperate. No. 13 Missouri fell to No. 9 Ole Miss, 31-3, in Oxford. But judging by the crowd, nobody came back to Columbia for the football anyway.
