Gov. Mike Parson appointed Michael Wright for a judgeship on the Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals last week.
Wright, who was an associate circuit judge in Warren County’s 12th Judicial Circuit prior to being selected, replaces Judge Sherri B. Sullivan who retired on August.
The other nominees who were under consideration by Parson were Kathleen Hamilton and Virginia Lay.
As an appellate judge, Wright can look forward to more assistance than when he was an associate circuit judge, according to Universal City Attorney Sydney Chase.
"Your skills really do not change as a judge of the law and the facts in the lower court and as a judge only of the law in the higher court," he said. "You have greater help. You have law clerks and assistants and law departments in the appellate court."
A provision of the Missouri Constitution states that if a judge is still in office on their 70th birthday, they forfeit their pension, which encourages the judiciary to retire before their 70th birthday.
The selection process that landed Wright the role involved about eight hours of public interviews, two hours of deliberations, and eight rounds of balloting, according to a Missouri Courts press release.
Wright, who was born in 1960 and resides in Warrenton, earned a bachelor of science in business administration in finance and banking in 1982 from the University of Missouri-Columbia before securing a law degree in 1985 from Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas.
Under the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, judicial commissions for each district review applications, and interview candidates before selecting three nominees from which the governor appoints one person.
"The system is better than in most states because there is a system and it tries to have some degree of fairness," said Chase who has practiced law in Missouri and New York. "Most other states are purely political but in Missouri, the governor selects somebody and that's it. Missouri is much more modern in trying to have a system that is more fair. Nothing is completely fair, but it is more fair."
Missouri’s state court plan is designed to be a merit-based and non-partisan process for selecting judges and the general public is encouraged to submit commentary on each judicial candidate to the judicial commission.
Sullivan, whom Wright is replacing, served the appellate court twice as chief judge from July 2003 to July 2004 and again from July 2021 to June 2022. The late Governor Mel Carnahan appointed Sullivan to the Eastern District in 1999. She earned a bachelor’s degree in justice administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law.
Prior to her judicial career, she served as a prosecutor for the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office until she was appointed in March 1989 as an associate circuit judge in the city of St. Louis' 22nd Judicial Circuit. In 1994, Sullivan was appointed a circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit.