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Mary Fox Selected Director of State Public Defender System 

The Missouri Public Defender Commission has selected Mary Fox of St. Louis, Missouri, to serve as the next director of the Missouri State Public Defender System. Fox took office on January 10, 2020, succeeding Michael Barrett, who resigned November 15, 2019, to relocate to New York.

Fox has served as the District Defender for the St. Louis City Trial Office since 2007. Fox was an Assistant Public Defender in the Clayton and St. Louis City Trial offices from 1981 until 1987.

In the intervening 20 years Fox served as the Traffic Commissioner for St. Louis County and practiced family and juvenile law. 

Fox is a 1976 graduate of St. Louis University with a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Affairs and a 1980 graduate of St. Louis University School of Law.

Fox is a lifelong resident of University City where she and her husband Bob raised their four children, Rob, Tom, Kathleen, and Patrick.