2 February 2021

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Judge Laura Denvir Stith has announced her impending retirement from the Supreme Court of Missouri after serving 20 years as a member of this Court, including as chief justice from July 2007 through June 2009, calling her service as a judge on the Court “the honor of a lifetime.” Her retirement will be effective after the close of business March 8, 2021.

Appointed March 7, 2001, to the Supreme Court of Missouri, Stith is ending her legal career where it began. She served as a law clerk to Judge Robert E. Seiler of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1978 to 1979 after graduating magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. She then joined the Kansas City law firm of Shook, Hardy and Bacon, where she had a civil practice from 1979 to 1994. Stith then was appointed as a judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, where she served for more than six years before her 2001 appointment to the Supreme Court of Missouri upon the retirement of Judge Ann Covington.  

Stith, the second woman ever to serve on the Court, said Judge Covington served as a role model and paved the way for her and the other judges appointed to the Supreme Court in the last 20 years.

“I hope that in some small way my service over the last 20 years has continued to be a model for women lawyers and other minorities throughout Missouri that the court system of Missouri is open to all those who wish to serve, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity or type of legal practice,” Stith said.  

In first announcing Stith’s retirement during his 2021 State of the Judiciary address, Chief Justice George W. Draper III said: “Judge Laura Denvir Stith[’s] … resume and body of work speak for themselves … she will leave a lasting legacy in the areas of ethics, gender and justice. She is a dedicated jurist. Her experience, intelligence, diligence, and wisdom will be missed. Please join me in wishing her all the best in her retirement.”

Stith does not intend to return to private practice but rather expects to remain as a senior judge who can continue to contribute to the justice system in Missouri.  

“I was lucky enough to spend the first quarter of my life after law school in private practice with a wonderful Kansas City law firm, and to spend the middle half of my career serving the justice system as a judge of the court of appeals and the Supreme Court,” Stith said. “I have been blessed to serve with fine colleagues on the court of appeals and Supreme Court during my career, and will miss serving with them on the Supreme Court. But that is balanced by my excitement about the new challenges ahead of me. I plan to spend the final quarter of my career continuing to serve the justice system through pro bono work and volunteer work and already have offered my assistance to Joe Dandurand, executive director of Legal Aid of Western Missouri. I also have told Chief Justice Draper that I am ready, willing and able to continue to serve the courts as a senior judge in whatever capacity would be most useful.”

Born and raised in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, Stith graduated with honors from John Burroughs School and magna cum laude from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Her parents, Dick and Ann Carter Stith, were very active in civic affairs in St. Louis and encouraged her and her siblings to go into law. The family followed their parents’ dreams more closely than they could have imagined. Stith married a lawyer, Donald G. Scott, who until his recent retirement was a partner at McDowell, Rice, Smith and Buchannan in Kansas City. Three of Stith’s siblings became lawyers: Rebecca Stith was in private practice and then spent a long career as an attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Kate Stith Cabranes is a professor at Yale Law School and is married to Jose Cabranes, a judge on the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals; and Richard Stith is a professor emeritus at Valparaiso Law School in Indiana. Two of Stith’s nieces and two of her nephews also are lawyers.

Stith’s three grown daughters, however, chose to pursue careers outside the law. Dr. Lisa Scott earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, before being awarded her doctorate in history at the University of Chicago. She is working in graduate administration at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Becca Scott earned a bachelor’s degree in theater arts from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is an online podcaster, actor and comedian in Los Angeles. Cynthia Scott earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art and philosophy from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is an artist and counselor in Minneapolis.

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Contact: Beth S. Riggert
Communications Counsel
Supreme Court of Missouri
(573) 751-3676