LOCAL LAWYERS HONORED

Three Cape Girardeau lawyers were recently recognized by the Missouri Bar Association.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle, John L. Oliver Jr., and Edwin F. Ragland were all honored at the Missouri Bar-Missouri Judicial Conference annual meeting in Springfield.

Swingle received the 1995 W. Oliver Rasch Award, given annually to the writer of the "outstanding article" published in the Journal of the Missouri Bar during the previous year.

Swingle won the award for the article, "Warning: Pretrial Publicity May Be Hazardous to Your Bar License," a discussion of laws relating to pretrial publicity in criminal cases. The article was published in December 1994.

"It was fun to win an award that I didn't know existed," Swingle said. "I'd never heard of it until I got the letter telling me I won."

Swingle said he has taught several classes to prosecutors and law enforcements "telling them what we ethically can say and what we can't about cases you're prosecuting." The article grew out of those classes, he said.

Swingle, a native of Cape Girardeau, is serving his third term as county prosecutor. He earned his law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1989.

Oliver, a partner at Oliver, Oliver and Waltz, was one of three recipients of the Spurgeon Smithson Award, which is given annually by the Missouri Bar Foundation to Missouri judges, teachers of law and, or, lawyers deemed to have "rendered outstanding service toward the increase and diffusion of justice among men."

"It's a very nice award," said Oliver, who has been practicing law in Cape Girardeau since 1969. He served as U.S. magistrate for the Eastern District of Missouri, Southeastern Division, from 1976 to 1990.

Oliver is a former member of the Missouri Bar's Board of Governors and a trustee and former president of the Missouri Bar Foundation.

Ragland was one of 91 members of the Missouri Bar recognized as a "Senior Counsellor." The title is bestowed upon attorneys who have reached the age of 75 or who have been admitted to the Missouri Bar for 50 years.