Looking Back at Leadership

The last few years of Shelly Dreyer’s career have brought big firsts for the experienced personal injury practitioner.

After spending a decade as a partner at a St. Charles County firm—five years of which she also was a part-time municipal judge in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri—and then seven years at a Joplin firm, Dreyer opened her own practice with partner Keegan Tinney in February 2023. 

“We maintain a very relaxed culture where we don’t micromanage our staff, and we have a lot of camaraderie,” Dreyer says. “My partner and I approach everything as a team.”

That collaborative approach came in handy this past year, as Dreyer stepped into another first: spending a year as president of The Missouri Bar. Sworn in on Sept. 19, 2024, Dreyer oversaw a team of all-woman officers. “I can’t wait for the day when that isn’t novel,” she says, “because that means we’ve arrived at the day when all-women leadership is normal.”

Dreyer’s decision to pursue the presidency was driven by a desire to address what she calls a growing crisis. “Watching so many of my colleagues who are burned out, who face depression, anxiety … that was a big part of it,” she says. “We’ve seen too many of our colleagues lose their lives to suicide. So looking at well-being, and the emphasis The Missouri Bar has already been placing on it, it inspired me to pursue a bigger leadership role.”

Yet early in her presidency, an unexpected challenge arose: defending the integrity of the judicial system. “Every incoming president has issues that they think they will have and that they want to work on—and then you get what you get,” Dreyer says. “I did not anticipate the defense of the judiciary branch of government to the extent that it’s been necessary. When I initially ran, I was focused on well-being. But when I became president two months before the presidential election and also election year in the state of Missouri, I found myself spending a lot of time focusing on the importance of education about the third branch of government, the importance of our judges, and the importance of attorneys and defending our system.” 

Under her leadership, The Missouri Bar passed a resolution in support of the judicial system and the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, a 1940 amendment to the Missouri constitution that created a system to select judges based on merit rather than elections. “It’s a model plan that’s been adopted, either in its entirety or some portion of it, by over 30 states because it takes politics out of the process,” Dreyer says. 

Well-being initiatives, however, were still a critical part of her body of work. For example, Dreyer is thrilled about a partnership with the University of Utah to gather and analyze the results of a survey on well-being that went out to Bar members. The Bar aims to use this survey to enhance existing programs, such as the Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program, which provides free and confidential counseling services.

“We already know nationwide that attorneys are suffering with anxiety, burnout, stress, depression and substance issues,” she says. “If there are certain areas where more of our members are battling, we need that data so we can focus in that area. Let’s say we have high numbers on burnout. Is that burnout because of financial stress? Do we need to offer more programs that help with law firm management? We seek to do things we’re already doing, but with a better focus.”

Dreyer’s third presidential pillar was to address the shortage of lawyers in rural areas. “I’ve heard more and more people saying there’s not enough attorneys to serve the citizens in our rural areas,” she says. To get a clearer picture of the problem, she created a committee to gather data and identify solutions. 

“We have to … figure out why attorneys don’t seem to want to move to these rural areas. There are some counties in Missouri with only two attorneys. If one is a judge and the other is a prosecutor, who is handing wills, divorces, traffic tickets?,” says Dreyer. “Unless you have boots on the ground actually looking into it, we will have no indication if we are serving the needs of our residents in rural communities.”

With her term concluded as of September 2025, Dreyer is eager to dig into her next era of advocacy for her community: doing what she can to help with the transition to the next generation of lawyers. She’s grateful for her time as Bar president, and for what it’s done for her lawyering. “The opportunity to get to talk to Missouri lawyers in diverse geographical areas, diverse types of practice … it has made me a more rounded attorney who better understands issues facing my colleagues,” she says. “I’ve grown as a person and as a lawyer in ways that I really did not anticipate.”