Meet your 2019-2020 YLS Council leaders
The Missouri Bar Young Lawyers’ Section has a mission to enhance the professional growth and public service of new and recently admitted Missouri lawyers.
Meet your 2019-2020 YLS Council leaders
The Missouri Bar Young Lawyers’ Section has a mission to enhance the professional growth and public service of new and recently admitted Missouri lawyers. All Missouri lawyers aged 36 or less or, if older, who have been in practice five years or less, are automatically members of YLS. Learn more about YLS at www.MOBarYLS.org.
Chair
José Caldera is an assistant city counselor for the City of Columbia. His practice focuses on land use and development law and open government compliance. Caldera joined the City of Columbia in January 2017 after serving six years with the State of Missouri as an assistant attorney general, and senior counsel and commissioner of securities for former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander.
“My goal as [YLS] chair is to showcase the magnificent work the Young Lawyers’ Section Council does every day on behalf of The Missouri Bar,” Caldera said.
Caldera grew up in St. Louis and moved to Columbia in 2008 to attend the University of Missouri School of Law.
Chair-Elect
Lauren Collins is an associate attorney at Sandberg Phoenix & Von Gontard, P.C., where she practices health care and cannabis law. She earned her law degree from the University of Missouri School of Law in 2013.
In addition to serving as chair-elect of YLS, Collins is secretary for the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis Young Lawyers Division. Last year, she received the Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly Inaugural Award for Diversity and was also featured in a commercial and billboard as an outstanding alum from her alma mater, the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Collins has a deep dedication to working on behalf of others and notes that service is the purpose of YLS.
“It is a privilege to be able to serve the citizens of Missouri with such a dynamic group of young attorneys,” Collins said.
Secretary/Treasurer
JoEllen Flanagan Engelbart is an assistant prosecuting attorney for Jackson County, Missouri. She works in the special victims unit primarily prosecuting child sex, abuse and neglect crimes. She graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law in 2015. She also holds a master’s in public administration and a B.A. in political science with a minor in justice systems.
Engelbart is active in the Kansas City legal community, serving on the board of directors for the Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City; as a mentee in the Association for Women Lawyer’s Foundation Denise Henning Connections Program; and as co-chair of the Criminal Law Committee of the Criminal Law Section for the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Additionally, she serves as secretary of the Truman State Alumni Association - Kansas City Chapter.
Engelbart is most excited for YLS’ upcoming CLE series “Lunch Break Legal Basics.” These monthly one-hour webinars will touch on the basics of a number of issues that might cross the desk of a general practitioner.
Board of Governors Delegate
Stephan Tomlinson is an attorney with the Missouri Department of Social Services. Tomlinson currently serves as deputy director for the family support division within the agency, and previously served as the agency’s legislative director. The family support division oversees Medicaid, SNAP and TANF eligibility determinations, as well as child support services, rehabilitative services for the blind and other programs.
Tomlinson has a law degree from the University of Missouri and completed the Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program in 2016.
“YLS is a great way for young lawyers to get involved with the profession, network, and engage in meaningful service opportunities,” Tomlinson said. “I’m so glad I got involved because YLS has really brought me a lot of great relationships and memories.”
Immediate Past Chair
Nicole Fisher is immediate past chair of YLS. As the founder and managing partner of Fisher Law, LLC, her practice focuses exclusively in family law litigation in both Missouri and Kansas.
After attending undergrad at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, Fisher obtained her law degree from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Immediately after, Fisher moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she worked for the federal public defender. Missing the Midwest, Fisher moved backed to Kansas City where she clerked for the Hon. Marco Roldan in Independence. She opened her own practice in 2011.