Patricia Breckenridge has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eighth Circuit. Breckenridge was a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri from 2007 until her retirement in 2023 and served as chief justice from 2015 to 2017. She will receive the award from Judge Duane Benton at the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, in August.

“As a member of our state’s highest court for over 15 years, she worked tirelessly to improve Missourians’ lives….,” writes Willie J. Epps Jr., chief magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, who nominated Breckenridge for the award.

Breckenridge earned an undergraduate degree with honors in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975, then earned her law degree from the university in 1977. She then practiced law with her father and husband in the firm Russell, Brown, Bickel and Breckenridge in her hometown of Nevada, Missouri.

Breckenridge’s judicial career began even as she was practicing law. From 1979 to 1982, she also served as the town’s assistant municipal judge. Soon after, she was appointed as associate circuit judge for Vernon County, becoming the first woman to serve in the position. In 1990, Breckenridge was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District, becoming only the second woman to serve. In 2007, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri. During her tenure as chief justice, she was appointed to serve on the National Center for State Courts National Task Force on Fines, Fees, and Bail Practices, which gave her a platform for improving the administration of justice nationwide. In 2019, Breckenridge received the organization’s Distinguished Service Award for Appellate Judges.

Breckenridge has also been active in the nonprofit world. She co-founded the Council for Families in Crisis, for example, which offered a hotline, a support group for abuse victims, anger management counseling, and then established a battered women’s shelter in Nevada, Missouri, that has existed for more than 35 years. Breckenridge has mentored four sisters for 27 years through Operation Breakthrough, a nonprofit childcare provider and after-school program that serves low-income children in Kansas City, Missouri.

Breckenridge has been a member of the Elwood L. Thomas American Inn of Court since 2012. She served as president of the Association of Probate and Associate Circuit Judges from 1990 to 1991.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.

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Judge Patricia Breckenridge (Ret.), selected to receive prestigious 2025 American @InnsofCourt Professionalism Award for the 8th Circuit. bit.ly/AIC_Breckenridge #InnsofCourt #mizzou #MizzouAlumni #MizzouLaw