Meet the 2025-2026 Leadership Academy class
Twelve young lawyers have been selected to participate in the 2025-2026 Missouri Bar Leadership Academy. Individuals selected for the program are:
- Delaney Catlettstout, Missouri State Public Defender, St. Louis
- Steven Ebert II, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Clayton
- Kasey Ervin, Missouri State Public Defender, Kansas City
- Abigail Fears, Shook Hardy & Bacon, St. Louis
- Aleigh Flournoy, Seyferth Blumenthal & Harris LLC, Kansas City
- Sierra Johnson, 22nd Judicial Circuit Family Court, St. Louis
- José Sandoval, Sandoval Law Firm LLC, St. Louis
- Natalie Spangler, Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, Jefferson City
- Des’Aire Taylor, Franke Schultz & Mullen PC, Kansas City
- Caitlyn Vanover, Thurman Law Firm, Hillsboro
- Clayton Weems, Missouri Attorney General’s Office, St. Louis
- Kennedy Womack, Mid-Missouri Legal Services, Columbia
The Leadership Academy was developed in 2000 to encourage diversity among the bar’s leadership by recruiting young lawyers (those recently admitted to the bar under the age of 40 or those admitted for 10 years or fewer) who have already shown leadership qualities within their communities. Each class contains about a dozen lawyers who are diverse in terms of sex, race, ethnicity, practice area, and geography.
Leadership Academy classes participate in The Missouri Bar’s Annual Meeting, Board of Governors and committee meetings, and workshops designed to help the class learn more about the bar, develop leadership skills, and complete a service project. At the end of the year, class members commit to serving the bar in an active capacity for two years, such as serving on the Young Lawyers’ Section Council or committees, presenting continuing legal education programs, or writing for the Journal of The Missouri Bar.
The 2025-2026 class will officially launch its year-long program later this month.
Learn more about Leadership Academy and the impacts its graduates have had on the profession here.