Zel M. Fischer to become Missouri's next Chief Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 30 June 2017

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ZEL M. FISCHER TO BECOME MISSOURI’S NEXT CHIEF JUSTICE

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – By order of the Court, Supreme Court of Missouri
Judge Zel M. Fischer will become Missouri’s next chief justice July 1. His
term as chief justice will run through June 30, 2019. He succeeds Judge
Patricia Breckenridge, who remains on the Court.

Fischer grew up in Watson, the most northwestern city in Missouri and was
educated in the Rock Port public schools. He received his bachelor of arts
degree, majoring in both philosophy and political science, in 1985 from
William Jewell College in Liberty and his law degree, with distinction, in
1988 from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. He then
clerked for Supreme Court of Missouri Judge Andrew Jackson Higgins, who had
completed his own two-year term as chief justice just a year before.

After completing his clerkship, Fischer worked in the private practice of
law in northwest Missouri from 1989 to 2006, when he was elected associate
circuit judge in Atchison County. In October 2008, he was appointed to the
Supreme Court, where he led an effort for trial judges throughout the state
to have advanced education and training to preside over cases involving
complex science or technology issues.

Fischer and his wife, Julie, live in rural northwest Missouri and have four
children.