Meet #MOLawyers: Amber Christ
Vol. 82, No. 5 / September-October 2026
Amber Christ is the executive director of Legal Aid of Western Missouri, a role she began in 2026. Previously, she spent a decade leading national policy advocacy at Justice in Aging, advancing healthcare and economic security for older adults facing poverty. A graduate of the Washington University School of Law, Christ began her legal career at Legal Aid as a lawyer from 2006-2012 and later served for five years on the Legal Aid Board of Directors before returning to lead the organization.
What does it mean to you to be back at the organization where you started your career?
“It feels like coming home ... For the last decade, I worked on national health policy, which I loved, but it is a view from 30,000 feet. Coming back to Legal Aid, to work directly in my own community, is a return to the work that shaped me.”
What goals do you hope Legal Aid of Western Missouri is able to accomplish in the next few years?
“My biggest goal is the core of what we do: reach more of the people who need us. Across the 40 counties Legal Aid serves, about 300,000 people live in poverty, and only a fraction know we exist or can access our services. Closing that gap means building our capacity to help more people than we do today. At the same time, I want to take what I learned from working at the national level and grow our systemic impact. Helping one person at a time will always matter, and we will never stop. But I also want us going after the larger problems that push people into crisis in the first place.”
How can Missouri lawyers balance pro bono service with demanding jobs and caseloads?
“Start smaller than you think you have to. You do not need to take a two-year case to make a difference. Spend a few hours volunteering at one of our clinics, taking a single discrete matter like helping a client with a beneficiary deed or power of attorney."
What aspect of Legal Aid of Western Missouri’s work is most meaningful to you?
“What moves me most is that we meet people at the hardest moments, an eviction notice, a benefits denial, a protection order, and we stand next to them so they do not have to face the system alone. We make legal rights real, and there is nothing more meaningful than being part of securing justice for those who face the most barriers to accessing it.”
Why are you passionate about increasing access to legal services?
“Because a right you can’t afford to claim isn’t really a right at all. A lawyer is often the difference between keeping your home and losing it, between getting the benefits you are owed and going without. Closing that gap is the most basic fairness I can think of.”
What is a topic you could give a TED Talk on without preparation?
“It would be about our VW bus. My family bought a 1970 Westfalia bus a year ago. I could easily talk about how a slow, loud, and wildly impractical vehicle turns out to be one of those things in the world that has the power to connect us at a time when we feel so disconnected.”
Answers have been edited for clarity, brevity, and style. Know a lawyer who you think should be featured in “Meet #MOLawyers”? Submit their name to journal@mobar.org.