Three Missouri lawyers selected for appellate advocacy awards
Missouri lawyers Nathan Aquino, J. Benton Hurst and Chelsea Mitchell have each been selected to receive a David J. Dixon Appellate Advocacy Award from The Missouri Bar Foundation.
Missouri lawyers Nathan Aquino, J. Benton Hurst and Chelsea Mitchell have each been selected to receive a David J. Dixon Appellate Advocacy Awardfrom The Missouri Bar Foundation. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in appellate practice by young lawyer members of The Missouri Bar and is named after the late Judge Dixon, whose tenacity, professionalism and judicial skills epitomize outstanding appellate practice.
Aquino joined the Missouri Attorney General’s Office after graduating from Hamline University School of Law in 2012, starting in the Consumer Protection division. He then transferred to the Criminal Appeals division, where he has had “the sincere pleasure” of arguing multiple times before Missouri's appellate courts.
“I am so grateful and honored to have received the David J. Dixon Appellate Advocacy Award,” Aquino said. “I strive to advocate with integrity, capability, and thoroughness, and this award gives me hope that I have at least started to reach these goals.”
Mitchell joined the Missouri State Public Defender System in 2010 as a trial attorney in Randolph County. She now serves as associate counsel in the system’s capital trial litigation division. In addition to her work representing clients, Mitchell teaches a habeas corpus and post-conviction relief course at the University of Missouri School of Law.
Hurst is an Assistant United States Attorney in the appellate section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri. He litigates criminal appeals in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.“I love writing and presenting written argument,” Hurst said. “I love the work of refining and revising an argument to best represent the position of the United States and to best help the court reach the right result.”
The three lawyers will receive the David J. Dixon Appellate Advocacy Award, which includes a $750 stipend, during The Missouri Bar Foundation & Public Service Awards Luncheon at the 2019 Annual Meeting of The Missouri Bar in Branson.