President's page: A love letter to the legal profession — reflections on 28 years of practice, a year as Missouri Bar president

Shelly Dreyer is 2024-2025 Missouri Bar president.

As I write this final column of my term as Missouri Bar president, my heart is full — not just from this extraordinary year, but from 28 years of practicing a profession that continues to inspire me every day. For a girl from humble beginnings who once thought becoming a lawyer was an impossible dream, I can honestly say that my love for this profession has only deepened with time.

When I began practicing in 1997, the legal world was a different place. We were just beginning to embrace email as primary communication. Legal research was beginning to be available online, but still much of it involved trips to the law library. Instead of exchanging emails, we exchanged letters or faxes. Document production involved boxes of paper and conference rooms filled with associates conducting manual review. Court filings required trips to the courthouse, and filing appellate briefs required an excessive number of paper copies.

Today, I carry more legal research power in my smartphone than entire law libraries once contained. Lawyers file pleadings electronically, conduct depositions via video conference, and manage complex cases through sophisticated software. The COVID-19 pandemic compressed what might have been decades of gradual change into months of necessary adaptation, proving our profession’s remarkable ability to evolve while maintaining our core mission. 

But technology has been just one force reshaping the legal profession. We’ve seen long-overdue attention to mental health and well-being issues. We’ve witnessed challenges to public trust in our legal institutions. We’ve grappled with growing concerns about access to legal services, especially in rural Missouri counties where many stress there are not enough lawyers to serve the needs of the community. 

Through it all, what strikes me most is how our profession has not just survived these changes, but become stronger and more essential. 

But perhaps one of the biggest challenges today isn’t technological — it’s generational. There are lawyers who built their careers working 70-hour weeks at the office and communicating through phone calls and mail now working alongside a generation that grew up with technology and prioritizes work-life integration. 

This creates real tensions. Senior lawyers may view remote work as lacking commitment. Younger lawyers may see traditional practices as outdated. But both generations have something essential to offer — experience and wisdom on one side, technological fluency and fresh perspectives on the other. 

The firms that succeed will bridge this divide, valuing different generational approaches rather than seeing them as conflicting. 

Looking ahead, I see change accelerating rather than slowing. Artificial intelligence will move beyond document review to more sophisticated applications — drafting initial pleadings, predicting case outcomes, and identifying legal strategies by analyzing thousands of similar cases. Virtual reality may transform how we present evidence to juries. 

Much of the routine legal work will become automated through technology platforms. This shift will push our profession toward higher-value services that require human judgment, creativity, and relationship skills. Legal education will need to emphasize technology integration alongside traditional legal training. 

Despite these dramatic changes, the core functions that require human lawyers will become more valuable as routine work becomes automated. Strategic judgment cannot be programmed. When clients face decisions involving competing interests, they need lawyers who can assess risk in novel situations and provide guidance that considers legal, business, and human factors simultaneously. 

Advocacy remains fundamentally human work. Client counseling is irreplaceable. People facing legal problems often need more than technical advice — they need advocates who can understand their fears, explain complex situations clearly, and provide both legal and emotional support through difficult times. Effective courtroom advocacy requires reading emotional cues and adapting arguments in real time. Connecting with clients and jurors on both logical and emotional levels is something only humans can do. 

The lawyers who succeed in the coming decades will be those who combine technological efficiency with enhanced strategic thinking, advocacy skills, and client relationships. 

After 28 years, what keeps me passionate is straightforward: Every day, lawyers across Missouri help families navigate their most difficult moments, assist small businesses in achieving their dreams, ensure that the accused receive fair representation, and stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. 

We draft the wills that provide families peace of mind. We negotiate the contracts that fuel our economy. We stand in courtrooms defending the principle that everyone deserves their day in court. This work isn’t always glamorous, but it’s profoundly meaningful. When I help a client navigate a complex legal issue, when I see justice served, I’m reminded why I fell in love with this profession. 

Throughout all these changes, The Missouri Bar has been a professional home. For over 80 years, The Missouri Bar has supported lawyers through economic upheavals, technological revolutions, and social transformations. It provides continuing education that keeps lawyers up to date on the law, practice management resources and services that help lawyers even better serve their clients, and the professional community that reminds us we’re part of something larger than individual practices. 

As the profession continues to evolve, I’m confident The Missouri Bar will evolve with it, always maintaining its core mission of improving the legal profession, the administration of justice, and the law on behalf of the public. 

As I prepare to pass the presidential gavel, I’m filled with optimism about the profession’s future. 

To young lawyers: You’re entering this profession with tools more powerful than any previous generation could have imagined. Use them to expand access to justice and uphold the highest traditions of our profession. 

To experienced practitioners: Thank you for your wisdom and mentorship. The profession is stronger because of your contributions. 

To all Missouri lawyers: Remember that we are more than service providers. We are guardians of rights, protectors of democratic institutions, and servants of justice. That responsibility is both a privilege and a sacred trust. 

It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president. This profession has given me 28 years of meaningful work, incredible colleagues, and the opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives. 

I believe in this profession, in its nobility, its importance to our society, and its bright future. I believe in The Missouri Bar and its continuing mission to support excellence in the legal profession. And I believe in all of you, the lawyers who prove every day that this profession deserves our love, our respect, and our very best efforts. 

The legal profession will continue to evolve, but its essential mission will remain constant: Ensuring we are governed by laws, not by the whims of the powerful. That mission is as important today as it was 80 years ago, and it will be just as important 80 years from now. 

Thank you for this incredible journey. Thank you for the privilege of serving as your president. And thank you for being part of a profession that makes our democracy stronger and our society more just.