Hon. Robin Ransom
Supreme Court of Missouri
Judge Robin Ransom was born in July 1967 in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Rosati-Kain High School. She completed her undergraduate degree at Douglass College-Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in political science and sociology. Judge Ransom received her Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri–Columbia School of Law.
Following law school, she worked as an assistant public defender in the St. Louis County office from 1992-1995. She was assigned cases primarily in the Family Court – Juvenile Division. In the fall of 1995, she took a position as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. She remained in that position for a year. In October of 1996, she began working in the Family Court – Juvenile Division of the 21st Judicial Circuit Court (St. Louis County) as a staff attorney. In that role, she handled juvenile delinquency and care and protection cases which included termination of parental rights matters.
Her judicial career began in 2002, when she was appointed as a Family Court Commissioner for the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court on Dec. 27, 2002. In that role, she presided over juvenile delinquency and care and protection cases, termination of parental rights matters, guardianships and adoptions. She served in that capacity until Sept. 11, 2008, when she was appointed by Gov. Matt Blunt as circuit judge in the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court (City of St. Louis).
Initially as a circuit judge, she was assigned to a general trial division from September – December of 2008. From January 2009 – December 2010, she was assigned to the Family Court presiding over contested divorces and motions to modify. Judge Ransom returned to a general trial division from January 2011 – December 2015. In January of 2016, she began serving as the Administrative Judge of the Family Court, overseeing all facets of the court’s operations both in the Juvenile and Domestic divisions.
In September of 2016, she was unanimously elected by her peers to serve in the capacity of assistant presiding judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court for the calendar years of 2017 and 2018. Then in September of 2018, she was again unanimously elected by her peers to serve as presiding judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court for the calendar years of 2019 and 2020. After just a few weeks in the role of presiding judge, Judge Ransom was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson on Jan. 9, 2019, to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District. On May 24, 2021, Gov. Parson appointed Judge Ransom to her current position as judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri.
Judge Ransom is a member of The Missouri Bar and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL). She is the recipient of the Theodore McMillian Service Award from the Black Law Students Association of Saint Louis University School of Law. She also in 2019 received a Women’s Justice Award for Public Service presented by Missouri Lawyers Media. In 2008 she received the Clarence Darrow Award from the Public Interest Group at Saint Louis University School of Law. Judge Ransom is also a frequent presenter to school groups and organizations interested in juvenile laws and juvenile justice.
Judge Ransom was retained in the role of circuit judge in both 2010 and 2016. She was retained as a member of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, in 2020. Her current term as a member of the Supreme Court expires Dec. 31, 2022.
