Johnny Boyer, Paige Sparks honored with 2025 YLS Chair Awards
Each year at the Annual Meeting of The Missouri Bar, the outgoing Missouri Bar Young Lawyers’ Section Council chair presents the YLS Chair Awards. The awards are given to exceptional members who enrich the council and the message of The Missouri Bar and its lawyers. This year, 2024-2025 YLS Council Chair Danielle Atchison presented the awards to Johnny Boyer and Paige Sparks.
Boyer
Boyer, of Joplin, was chosen for his work as YLS liaison to the Board of Governors and chair of the Diversity Committee.
He attended all Board of Governors meetings and presented changes to the YLS bylaws for approval. He also worked with the Diversity Committee to organize several networking events across the state for all lawyers.
“I chose Johnny Boyer for a YLS Chair Award because I wanted to recognize how tall of an order I put in front of him this year and how well he stepped up to the plate,” Atchison said. “He is an outstanding leader and wonderful representative of the YLS Council to the BOG and also to our statewide bar.”
Boyer credited committee members for their support.
"I am particularly proud of numerous connections that I have made over the past year,” Boyer said. “Whether it was through developing great connections and relationships with the talented and hard-working members of The Missouri Bar staff, my fellow committee members, or the many amazing lawyers across our state that come to our events, I have been blown away by everyone’s determination to serve our clients and the people of our state.”
Sparks
Sparks, of St. Louis, was presented with a YLS Chair Award for her work with the Publications Committee and her willingness to help in any capacity.
As chair of the Publications Committee, Sparks has worked with bar staff and other council members to create videos that inform the public of their rights. The videos use information from ShowMeRights.org, which the committee created in 2017. Aside from her work with the committee, she volunteers for many events and programs throughout the year.
"Paige has always shown up for the council’s efforts. She is at every swearing in ceremony to make sure we have the ability to swear folks into the federal districts,” Atchison said. “She volunteers every year to present to schools for Constitution Day programming, and she volunteers to present any CLE that the YLS Council asks her to.”
Sparks said she is proud of the video project’s success and is grateful for the recognition but emphasized that meaningful work is not about awards.
“It's not about chasing recognition,” she said. “It's about showing up, doing the work, and advocating with purpose every day. If you stay committed and work hard, the results will follow, and people will notice.”
Click here to learn more about annual awards presented by The Missouri Bar, The Missouri Bar Foundation, and other entities. Read about other 2025 award winners here.