24 May 2021

“On behalf of all my colleagues on the Court, it is my great pleasure to welcome Judge Robin Ransom to the state's highest court,” Chief Justice George W. Draper III said. “Judge Ransom brings years of experience to our bench, with a distinguished career in litigation, family courts and the trial bench before her appellate service. She also is a trailblazer, becoming the first woman of color ever to serve on our state’s high court. She is passionate about the law, and we welcome the energy, enthusiasm and experience she brings to our bench.”

Ransom grew up in St. Louis, earning college credits at both St. Louis Community College’s Forest Park Campus and Saint Louis University while still in high school. She earned her bachelor of arts in political science and sociology in 1988 from Douglass Residential College at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick and her law degree in 1991 from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. She worked at the St. Louis County public defender’s office from 1992 to 1995, then at the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office from 1995 to 1996. She joined the St. Louis County family court in 1996 as a staff attorney and, in 2002, was appointed a commissioner of its juvenile division. Ransom was appointed circuit judge in St. Louis County in 2008 and, in January 2019, she was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District. She resides in St. Louis.

Ransom was one of three individuals nominated Friday for the vacancy by the Appellate Judicial Commission, pursuant to article V, section 25 of the state constitution, after considering 25 candidates following three days of public interviews in Jefferson City.

Contact: Beth S. Riggert

Communications Counsel

Supreme Court of Missouri

(573) 751-3676