Meet the candidate: Angela Peterson is running for family court Judge | Elections

Her route to selecting regulation as a job was not common, she said, but her enthusiasm for justice grew around time.

Originally from St. Louis, she moved to Columbia in 1991 to start off her research at MU, exactly where she graduated with bachelor’s and master’s levels in accountancy and a law diploma in 1999.

Her business software at MU essential her to attend tax courses at the regulation school and take an oral exam. As an introvert, Peterson explained she felt anxious and out of her element, but right after the examination, her professor requested her if she’d take into consideration being a tax attorney rather of a tax accountant.

“I had not, and I was pregnant yet again at the time,” she claimed.

Even though she viewed as it late to start off a occupation from scratch, she determined a legislation degree would enhance her knowledge in accountancy. She was admitted into law school with a entire scholarship, and right after two a long time as a spouse and children legal professional, she is now a prospect for affiliate circuit choose, Division 10, which handles legal relatives issues.

Peterson, 48,commenced her job as a employees attorney with Mid-Missouri Lawful Providers, a non-profit that gives free lawful support to very low-revenue persons. She was afterwards promoted to litigation director and held that posture for 11 decades.

She has also served as a supervising lawyer for Rule 13 qualified legislation students in courtroom proceedings as part of the Relatives Violence Clinic at MU. She now functions as an legal professional at Columbia Household Legislation Team LLC.

Her years working for Mid-Missouri Lawful Expert services gave her the option to characterize folks various from her in track record and life encounters, she explained.

“I acquired a great deal about the need to have for most people to be represented, for the need for true justice and a stage enjoying industry,” Peterson said.

As an attorney, Peterson explained she does not only see her consumers as cases, but as folks who instruct her “matters about everyday living I will never know or knowledge.”

Gary Stamper, also a family legislation lawyer, mentioned he experienced from time to time observed Peterson in court more than the past two a long time when she served for the authorized support agency, and, at instances, he has confronted her as an opponent in family members regulation cases.

Stamper claimed he felt drawn to Peterson’s advocacy for the underprivileged and disenfranchised.

“She was, at moments, irritatingly complicated to deal with in her advocacy for her purchasers, but I normally highly regarded her commitment to serve individuals in have to have in family members courtroom,” he stated.

Stamper also said he has often been amazed by her operate ethic in the deal with of one parenthood, and that Peterson has a grasp of the law and working experience that will translate into an productive decide. “She will strike the ground functioning.”

“If I am elected, my target and target will be to do my work, tackle those people in front of me with an situation, hear to disputes, apply the legislation and make choices,” she stated. “Maybe it is the old accountant in me, but initially and foremost, I’ve bought to do the job I’m elected to do.”

Peterson measured the effect a spouse and children attorney and a Division 10 judge have on the local community with “The Starfish Tale,” the place a girl tries to help save starfish by throwing them back again into the ocean.

While other individuals snicker and tell her she will not conserve them all as they are far too a lot of, she retains throwing and responds “but I saved a single.” 

“To me, the effects that you have on a single household, irrespective of whether the consequence is optimistic or detrimental, resonates inside of the neighborhood as a complete,” she claimed. “I want to make a good impact on every man or woman that would see me in my courtroom.”