October 13, 2009
Gov. Nixon appoints Cynthia Reams Martin to judgeship on Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Gov. Jay Nixon today announced the appointment of Lee's Summit attorney Cynthia L. Reams Martin to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District. She will fill a vacancy created after the Honorable Joseph Dandurand resigned to become deputy attorney general for Attorney General Chris Koster.
Martin is the principal member of Cynthia Reams Martin P.C., a Lee's Summit law practice she opened in 2000. Prior to opening her own practice, she was a partner and an associate at several Kansas City area law firms. Martin's 25 years of legal practice has included numerous jury trials. She has had principal responsibility for numerous appeals before appeals courts in Missouri and Kansas, and before federal appellate courts, including successfully arguing in several high-profile business law cases.
"Cynthia Martin has demonstrated her legal acumen time and again before both the trial and appellate courts, and she has been publicly and prominently recognized by her peers as being a top lawyer in the Kansas City area," Gov. Nixon said. "She brings great skills to the bench, and I am confident she will be a most able jurist in serving the people of Missouri on this Court."
Martin has served as president, and in several other leadership positions, with the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Foundation. She is a past recipient of the Missouri Bar Association President's Award. Martin was recognized as a "Super Lawyer" for Missouri and Kansas in 2006, 2007 and 2008; and as "Best of the Bar" by the Kansas City Business Journal in 2003 and again from 2005 through 2008.
Martin graduated as valedictorian of her law school class at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 1984. At UMKC, she was a member of the Law Review and was a member of both the Order of the Bench and Robe and the Order of Barristers. Martin was awarded the Thomas Deacy Memorial Trial Practice Award and the John L. Sheridan Moot Court Award. She graduated summa cum laude from William Jewell College in 1981, with a double major of communications and psychology.
In the community, Martin is a voting board member of the Lee's Summit Educational Foundation, a citizen member of the audit committee for the Lee's Summit R-7 School District, and secretary for the Southeastern Jackson County Citizens Association. Her past community involvement has included being a Cub Scout leader and an officer with the Lee's Summit North Music Parents organization.
Martin was one of three appointees for this judgeship submitted to Gov. Nixon by the Appellate Judicial Commission for the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, under the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan.