25 June 2024

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The judges of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, elected Anthony Rex Gabbert as chief judge effective July 1, 2024.

The chief judge serves as chief administrative officer of the court. The chief judge’s duties include presenting the court’s budget to the legislature and approving all financial transactions involving the court. The chief judge also assigns the court’s 11 judges to panels to hear appeals and petitions for extraordinary writs and designates the presiding judges of those panels. The chief judge works closely with the clerk of the court in considering and ruling on motions presented to the court and presides over the monthly conference of the judges. 

As part of his duties, Gabbert will chair the Sixth, Seventh, and Sixteenth circuit judicial commissions. These commissions are responsible for selecting three-person panels for consideration by the governor when judicial vacancies occur in those circuits, as a part of the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan.

Gabbert has served on four levels of the judiciary. Prior to his appointment to the Missouri Court of Appeals in 2013, he served as municipal judge of North Kansas City from 1993 to 1994, associate circuit judge in Clay County (in the Seventh Judicial Circuit) from 1994 to 2004, and circuit judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit (Clay County) from 2004 to 2013. Gabbert also served as the presiding judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit from 2008 to 2010. 

“It is an honor to serve the citizens of Missouri,” Gabbert said. “I am humbled by the selection of my judicial colleagues to serve as chief judge. I am grateful to them, as well as the dedicated staff at our court, who all understand our solemn duties and responsibilities to serve the public. All of us are committed to timely, well analyzed and carefully written opinions that explain the reasoning of our decision to the parties in each case, as well as providing guidance to future litigants, lawyers and trial courts.”

In 2023, Gabbert received The Missouri Bar’s Theodore McMillian Award of Judicial Excellence. He is a member of The Missouri Bar, the Clay County Bar Association and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.

Gabbert received his bachelor of arts from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and his law degree from the Mississippi College School of Law. He currently serves as adjunct faculty in legal studies at MidAmerica Nazarene University, Park University, Penn Valley Community College, and Rockhurst University, all in the Kansas City metropolitan area. He formerly taught at William Jewell College in Liberty and Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas.

Contact:  Kimberly K. Boeding, clerk of court

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District

(816) 889-3600