Before Sherri Sullivan became a judge, she worked as a machinist.
“We did drill presses, milling machines…and being the first woman, I felt I needed to prove that I could do the job as good or better than the male operators," she said.
Two years later, Sullivan was in law school and subsequently practiced law.
“From the machine shop, I learned to show up, do the work consistently to the best of my ability and I learned the value of hard work and the value of the relationships that could be formed with people from all walks of life but I don’t think you need to be a machinist to learn to be a good judge,” Sullivan told the St. Louis Record.
After graduating from Saint Louis University Law School, Sullivan was a prosecutor for the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office and served on the St. Louis Circuit Court as a circuit and associate circuit judge.
Gov. Mel Carnahan appointed her to the Eastern District Court of Appeals in 1989 where she served twice as chief judge.
“Coming from the trial court, we had to make very quick decisions because usually you're in the midst of a trial and you can't hold up the jurors and tell them to come back next week while you think about it,” Sullivan said in an interview. “So, when coming onto the Court of Appeals, we have the luxury of time to study the law and confer with our colleagues. That was a big change.”
But after 34 years, Sullivan is retiring from the judiciary because if a judge is still in office on their 70th birthday, they forfeit their pension under a provision in the state constitution.
"I have taken senior judge status, so I'll help when or where I can," she said. "I hope to do some traveling here in the States and internationally. I'm fine with retirement. I've had the experience of being on the trial court and the appellate court for this amount of time so 70 years old is fine. There are other judges who don't get appointed until later in life, and they don't have the experience of that many years."
The Missouri Court of Appeals-Eastern District, the largest court in the state appellate system, is located in the historic Old Post Office in downtown St. Louis but regularly holds sessions at various locations throughout the district.
“We can hold dockets in anywhere from Hannibal to Cape Girardeau in colleges, universities, law schools, high schools, and retirement homes,” Sullivan said in an interview. “That's our outreach effort to teach the public about the judicial system.
Sullivan will always remember the outsourced session at Rosati-Kain High School in St. Louis where she graduated.
"At the time I attended, Rosati was one of the few college prep schools for young women and they very much taught us to believe in ourselves and what we could accomplish," she added. "It was very instrumental in my career path. They helped me to obtain a scholarship to college so to return there before my retirement was to come full circle."