Laura Denvir Stith

Laura Denvir Stith (b. October 30, 1953) is the Chief Justice on the Supreme Court of Missouri. She has been on the Supreme Court since 2001. She graduated "magna cum laude" from Jackson College for Women (now part of Tufts University) in 1975 and from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. Judge Stith served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Robert Seiler of the Missouri Supreme Court and then entered private practice in Kansas City, Missouri. She served on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, from 1994 to 2000.

Judge Stith is a founding director for Lawyers Encouraging Academic Performance ("LEAP") in Kansas City, Missouri, where she lives with her attorney husband, Donald Scott, and their three children. Her father, Richard T. Stith, Jr., an insurance agent, served as mayor of Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, from 1983 to 1987. He was a decorated Marine pilot during World War II. Her late mother, Ann Carter Stith (November 21, 1920-November 24, 2005), was a longtime advocate of clean government, prison reform, and educational and family support services for children. Judge Stith's brother, Richard T. Stith, III, is a law professor at Valparaiso University in Indiana. Her sister Kate Stith-Cabranes is a law professor at Yale University and her sister Rebecca Stith is an attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her brother-in-law is the Honorable Jose A. Cabranes of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

External links

* [http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.asp?id=183 Laura Denvir Stith] on the Missouri Supreme Court Website