A journalist’s education and a lawyer’s practice
Tricia Scaglia studied broadcast news and political science at Columbia, practiced law in Independence, and in April 2026 received a judicial appointment in Jackson County.
Three Missouri institutions
The governor’s appointment notice records two undergraduate degrees from the University of Missouri–Columbia and a law degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Scaglia worked at Campbell and Simpkins before establishing the Independence practice identified in the notice. Columbia, Kansas City and Independence each figure in this story for a different reason.
How a seat opens
On April 17, 2026, Governor Mike Kehoe appointed Scaglia an associate circuit judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. John Gromowsky’s appointment as a circuit judge had left the opening. That one detail is worth the trouble of reading the original notice. A local reader can trace how a change in one judicial office leads to an appointment in another. Scaglia’s earlier education in reporting makes a fitting occasion to insist that an independent publisher give the reader the same appointment record he used.
I publish this account as a Missouri commentator interested in what the press can establish about a lawyer’s entry into public office. Journalism, election politics and judicial selection use different records.