Commissioner Sherrill L. Rosen honored with annual family law award

Dedicated, compassionate, mentor, smart, supportive, witty, irreplaceable, rockstar, friend… These words were used by numerous lawyers to describe the recipient of this year’s Roger P. Krumm Family Law Award, Commissioner Sherrill L. Rosen.

To a loud roar of applause, Rosen accepted the award on Thursday during the Annual Family Law Conference at Margaritaville Lake Resort Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach.

Presented by The Missouri Bar Family Law Section, the Roger P. Krumm Family Law Award honors a family law lawyer who has demonstrated an exceptional degree of competence, skill, integrity, commitment, and dedication toward the improvement and advancement of the practice of family law and the children and families involved in family law matters.

With a career spanning 45 years, Rosen said she is “proud” to work in family law because her work – and the work of many other family law lawyers – truly matters and impacts people’s lives.

“There are actual faces in front of you,” she said. “Even though we need to follow the law and follow the rules of evidence … we have to remember that these are people’s lives, children’s lives, and there are lots of things that we can do and lots of things we can’t do. If you just do your best, that’s the most anybody can ask of themselves.”

A graduate of the University of Missouri, she was appointed family court commissioner to the 16th Circuit Court in 1994 and has presided over contested family law cases, as well as a truancy court program in two middle schools.

Prior to serving as commissioner, Rosen was a lawyer at Legal Aid of Western Missouri and later worked in private practice. She also helped draft and lobby for the passage of Missouri’s adult abuse statute, and she handled its constitutional challenge. 

During her legal career, Rosen recalled her interactions with the award’s namesake, Roger Krumm, who died in 2002.

“(He) was the epitome of a great family law attorney, but also a man who had empathy for his clients and went above and beyond,” said Rosen, who knew Roger Krumm. “So, if I can have any of the qualities that you read of what a person (who receives this award) is suppose have, I’m honored.”