Executive summary: Connecting the past, present, future of YLS

Nicholas Jain is Dunklin County prosecuting attorney and 2025-2026 Young Lawyers’ Section Council chair.

Note from Missouri Bar Executive Director Mischa Buford Epps: The mission of the Young Lawyers’ Section is to enhance the professional growth and public service of new and recently admitted Missouri lawyers. No matter where you are in your career, it is important to encourage and support others. With this in mind, I have invited YLS Council Chair Nicholas Jain to share about YLS and its latest initiatives. 

I’m proud to serve as chair of YLS Council and carry on the legacy of young lawyers before me. YLS is a community within The Missouri Bar comprised of lawyers who are 36 years old or younger, or who have been admitted to any state bar for 10 years or less.

My time on YLS began in 2016 while working as a prosecutor in southwest Missouri just a year out of law school. While I was surrounded by a strong network of lawyers there, YLS gave me an additional community of fellow young lawyers to learn from and grow with. I quickly learned that even though Missouri lawyers have a worldwide reach, being a Missouri lawyer and YLS member is a small group. 

During last year’s Annual Meeting of The Missouri Bar, I sat next to David Macoubrie, a lawyer from Chillicothe, at the Opening Lunch and Chief Justice’s Address. I learned that Macoubrie was on the inaugural YLS Council in 1967. 

Another member of the inaugural YLS Council was the late Maurice “Marcy” Graham, whom I was fortunate enough to meet when I was a law student with very little clue of what my future practice would look like. Simply based on the virtue of me wanting to be a lawyer and him being one, Graham generously shared his time to help me decide what type of lawyer I wanted to be. Graham’s legacy of guiding young lawyers continues to this day.

Knowing these inaugural members sparked an interest in learning more about the history of the YLS Council’s founding and its connection to today. 

YLS was created to solve what the bar identified at the time as its greatest challenge: obtaining “more and better participation by the lawyer in Bar activities,” according to a 1967 article in the Journal of The Missouri Bar.¹ Bar leaders recognized that educating new lawyers about the bar’s responsibilities early on would promote continued service throughout the lawyers’ careers. 

At its first meeting, the YLS Council adopted the following projects for its first year of creation: 

– Welcome new lawyers at the bar admission ceremonies 
– Educate students of the future dangers of a felony conviction 
– Undertake a study to locate areas in the state that had the largest need for lawyers 
– Share with high school and college students about the practice of law 
– Recognize outstanding contributions to the overall field of law²

Now, nearly 60 years later, I can report that YLS continues to carry that mission and passion. YLS members welcome new lawyers at enrollment ceremonies every year. YLS Council members continue to present to students about civic education throughout the year and even saw a massive success for last year’s Constitution Day when lawyers spoke to more than 2,000 students at more than 60 schools.³ The council continues to partner with law schools around the state to connect students to The Missouri Bar and YLS. The YLS Council also highlights lawyers and non-lawyers who are making a difference in their communities by presenting the annual Liberty Bell Award and Tom Cochran Community Service Award. 

YLS has expanded its mission greatly since its founding in 1967. YLS organizes and provides continuing legal education programs both around the state and virtually. YLS Council educates the public through ShowMeRights.org and publications about the courts. We help our communities through service projects and by answering Missouri residents’ questions on Missouri.FreeLegalAnswers.org. 

I am proud of the work The Missouri Bar Young Lawyers’ Section does for lawyers of all ages and for the individual communities we serve. I am certain YLS will continue to serve Missourians long into the future.

Endnotes 
1 Thomas D. Cochran, “Missouri Young Lawyers Section,” 23 J. MoBar 528 (1967). 
2 Id. at 529-31. 
3 “Former Missouri chief justice, 2025-26 Missouri Bar vice president present to students,” The Missouri Bar (2025), https://news.mobar.org/former-missouri-chief-justice-2025-26-missouri-bar-vice-president-present-to-students.