Governor Jay Nixon has named a Cole County Circuit Court judge to fill the opening on the Missouri Supreme Court created by the retirement of the Honorable William Ray Price Jr.

Nixon praised Paul C. Wilson for his legal practice in both the public and private sectors, and his work on the bench in Cole County.

 

“Paul Wilson has stood before both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Missouri Supreme Court to represent the state of Missouri in cases on legal issues as diverse as federalism, the conversion of non-profit assets, school funding, and the constitutionality of actions by the General Assembly,” Gov. Nixon said. “He has demonstrated, time and again, both his ability and his dedication to serving the people of Missouri, and I am very pleased to be able to name him to the state’s highest court.”

Wilson is a member of the Columbia law firm of Van Matre, Harrison, Hollis, Taylor & Bacon. Prior to that, he served as a Circuit Judge after being appointed to the bench for the 19th Judicial Circuit in Cole County by Gov. Nixon in 2010.

From 1996 to 2008, Wilson was with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, first as an Assistant Attorney General and then as Deputy Chief of Staff for Litigation. It was during his tenure with this office that he argued cases before the state’s and the nation’s highest Courts. Wilson also served as senior counsel for budget and finance and as director for the Transform Missouri Project, during 2008 to 2010.

Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Wilson was in private practice with the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell in New York, and clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and for Missouri Supreme Court Justice Edward D. Robertson Jr.

Wilson graduated first in his law school class from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1992, and obtained his undergraduate degree from Drury University in Springfield. A native of Jefferson City, he is the son of Lorna Wilson and the late Cole County Associate Circuit Judge McCormick Wilson.

Wilson was one of three candidates presented to the Governor for his consideration by the Appellate Judicial Commission under the Missouri Court Plan.