Melissa Taylor Standridge (born July 12, 1962) is an American lawyer who has served as a justice of the

Kansas Supreme Court The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of seven justices, led by Chief Justice Marla Luckert, the court supervises the legal profession, administers the judicial branch, and serves as t ...

since 2020. She previously served as a judge of the

Kansas Court of Appeals Kansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, in turn named a ...

from 2008 to 2020.

Education

Standridge earned her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

in business administration. In 1993 she earned her

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law.Standridge Biography
/ref>

Career

Upon graduating from law school, Standridge began a two-year position with the

United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri The United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri (in case citations, W.D. Mo.) is the federal judicial district encompassing 66 counties in the western half of the State of Missouri. The Court is based in the Charles Evans ...

working as chambers counsel for Judge

Elmo Bolton Hunter Elmo Bolton Hunter (October 23, 1915 – December 27, 2003) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Education and career Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Hunter received an Artiu ...

. In 1995 she joined the firm

Shook, Hardy & Bacon Shook, Hardy & Bacon (SHB), L.L.P. (previously Shook, Hardy, Ottman, Mitchell and Bacon) is a U.S. law firm based in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2012, ''The National Law Journal'' ranked the firm as the 87th largest in the United States. The firm ha ...

. In 1999 she left Shook to work as chambers counsel to Magistrate Judge David Waxse.

Kansas Court of Appeals service

Standridge was appointed to the

by Governor

Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen Sebelius (; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 21st United States secretary of health and human services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius was instrumenta ...

in 2008.

Kansas Supreme Court service

On November 30, 2020, Governor

Laura Kelly Laura Jeanne Kelly (born January 24, 1950)"Laura Kelly,"
''Kansapedia,'' Kansas H ...

announced Standridge as her appointment to the

to the seat vacated by Justice Carol A. Beier who retired on September 18, 2020. She was sworn in on December 14, 2020.

Awards and associations

Standridge is involved with the

Kansas Bar Association The Kansas Bar Association (KBA) is a non-profit bar association for the state of Kansas with its headquarters in Topeka. The KBA is made up of less than 5,000 members and was established in 1882. Membership Any lawyer in good standing with ...

as a representative on the Board of Governors, and she is President of the Earl E. O'Connor American Inns of Court. In 2004 she received the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional Service from the National American Inns of Court. In 2006 she was selected as Kansas City Legal Leader of the Year from The Daily Record, and in 2001 she earned the Outstanding Service Award from the Kansas Bar Association.

References