Baker Sterchi attorney Paul Venker has been recognized by Missouri Lawyers Media as a 2022 Legal Champion Award honoree, joining a class of five attorneys practicing in Missouri to receive the award.

The annual Legal Champion Awards are given to plaintiffs or defense lawyers, not based on the size of verdicts, but the importance of the principle or policy at stake. Venker is being recognized alongside Judge David Mason for efforts to install the Freedom Suits Memorial, honoring courageous slave plaintiffs who sued for their freedom in the decades leading up to the war, in downtown St. Louis.

Venker is active in the St. Louis legal community, currently serving as chairman of the Freedom Suits Steering Committee which was responsible for organizing the construction of the Freedom Suits Memorial. After years of work to bring the memorial to fruition, an unveiling ceremony took place on the eastern plaza of the Civil Courts Building in June. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and a past president of the St. Louis Bar Foundation.

Missouri Lawyer Awards honorees will be recognized at a ceremony on February 9, 2023.