Blunt informed of candidates to fill vacancy on court

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The names of three candidates to fill a vacancy on the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District were submitted Tuesday to Gov. Matt Blunt.

The successful candidate will replace Edwin H. Smith, who resigned from the appeals court in July.

The candidates are Alok Ahuja, a partner with the Kansas City law firm of Lathrop & Gage; Cynthia L. Reams Martin, who has a solo law practice in Lee's Summit, Mo.; and Circuit Judge James E. Welsh, of the 7th Judicial Circuit in Clay County.

Ahuja, of Lee's Summit, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas and his law degree in 1988 from Yale Law School.

Martin, of Lee's Summit, earned her bachelor's degree from William Jewell College and her law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

Welsh, of Liberty, Mo., was appointed in 1988 as a circuit judge on the 7th Judicial Circuit. He received his bachelor's degree in aeronautics and his law degree from Saint Louis University.

Blunt has 60 days to select one of the candidates to fill the vacancy.