What qualities do you expect to see in a highly effective leader?
...I see a variety of qualities including such things as well informed, open minded, fair, someone who thinks before they speak, and when they do speak, they’ve said something thoughtful, persuasive, something that even if you disagree you still respect. A highly effective leader is organized themselves and is able to have that unique quality to motivate others. They inspire others to do things more than do what they’ve wanted to do or thought they could do.
…Try to have them keep an open mind about things and not be too rigid. Try to be tolerant of other people’s shortcomings and other peoples personal issues so that they can take that all into account and be able to inspire people in an appropriate way. Different things make different people tick and everybody’s got their own set of problems in their lives and we don’t always see as on the surface. But to have just a general understanding of people and tolerance and then to be organized themselves so that that instills confidence in the people you’re trying to lead that you are able to grasp the project and you’re willing to do some of the grunt work too and that you’re not above it, you’re able to roll up your sleeves and address the invitations to the event just as well as stand up and announce that it’s going to happen.-Mary Russell (2min.9sec)
Mary Russell, Judge, Supreme Court of Missouri
LSL Class of 2001-02
Mary Russell is a justice on the Missouri Supreme Court. She was appointed to the Supreme Court in September 2004 by then-governor Bob Holden, a Democrat. Russell was subsequently retained in office in the November 2006 general election for a 12-year term that expires on December 31, 2018. She previously served as a judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, from 1995 to 2000 and as its chief judge from 1999 to 2000.
Active in many professional organizations, Mary is currently a member of the Missouri Bar Association; the American Bar Association; the National Association of Women Judges; the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis; the Lawyers’ Association; the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association; the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association; the Cole County Bar Association; the 10th Circuit Bar Association; the Women Lawyers Association of St. Louis; and the Mid-Missouri Women Lawyers Association.
Always promoting the administration of justice, Mary has served on the Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline of Judges; Missouri Lawyer’s Trust Account Foundation; Commission to Select a Federal Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri in 1993; House of Delegates to the American Bar Association; Young Lawyers Council; numerous Missouri Bar committees; the Missouri Press-Bar Commission; and the Supreme Court Civil Rules Committee and Appellate Practice Committee. She is a past co-chair of the Appellate Practice Committee of BAMSL and has served as chair on other committees in BAMSL.
She has served on a variety of statewide boards and commissions including: the Board of Governors of Truman State University (President in 1996); Missouri State Senate Reapportionment Commission in 1991;the Missouri Council on Women's Economic Development.
Mary was educated in Hannibal public schools. She attended Truman State University, graduating summa cum laude with a B.S. and B.A. She graduated from the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Law in 1983.