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Missouri Supreme Court Award for Exemplary Service Renamed the ‘Maurice B. Graham Award’

2022 Court Award collage1

Gray Ritter Graham President Maurice Graham was honored September 15 at the 2022 The Missouri Bar/Judicial Conference Annual Meeting, held in Springfield.

Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Wilson announced that the Court renamed its annual award given to an attorney in recognition of exemplary service to the Bar and Judiciary the “Maurice B. Graham Award.”

The first-ever Maurice B. Graham Award was given to attorney John Grimm, the outgoing president of The Missouri Bar, at the Sept. 15 ceremony.

In announcing the name change to honor Maurice Graham, Chief Justice Wilson said:

“Finally, I want to talk about a person who – if you have any doubt about the future of the profession or the vital work we all do – just spend about 10 seconds in his presence and you’ll leave energized and enthusiastic. There are some lawyers whose extraordinary skill and intellect are so inspiring they make the rest of us want to be better lawyers. And there are some people whose extraordinary character and zest for life are so inspiring they make the rest of us want be better people. But I’ve never met anyone who combined those two traits the way Marcy Graham does. Please help me recognize him now.”

“I called Marcy a couple of weeks ago and explained the Court has an award that it gives each year to lawyers who have rendered extraordinary service to the Bar and the Judiciary. I told him that the Court had decided to re-name this award in his honor, and that the very first Maurice B. Graham Award would be presented this morning to John Grimm, the outgoing president of The Missouri Bar.”

“So, I was on the phone with Marcy and I tried to tell him how much I admired him and how long I had watched what he did and respected how he did it. And I got a little choked up. Then I felt silly because I thought there’s no way he knows how great an influence he’s had on me and my life as a lawyer.”

“That’s because Marcy Graham is a great person, and great people never think they’re great; they never know how many people they’ve touched or how deeply. But much more important than being a great person, Marcy Graham is a good person. He has spent his life caring about this profession and every single lawyer in it, including every one of you, whether you knew it or not.”

To view Chief Justice Wilson’s remarks in full, click here.

Pictured in the photos are: (top left) Maurice B. Graham Award recipient John Grimm; Maurice Graham, Maurice’s wife, Edna Mae; Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Wilson; (bottom right) with Maurice Graham, left to right are Gray Ritter Graham attorneys Tom Neill, Mike Figenshau, Morry Cole, Joan Lockwood, Gretchen Garrison, Graham Dobbs, Steve Woodley.

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Posted in News September 19, 2022.

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