University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

The urban public law school with a small liberal arts feel

The Inns of UMKC Tiera Farrow (1880-1971)   Tiera Farrow was born in 1880 as Mary Tiera Farrow and came to be known as the "Dean of Women Lawyers" in her lifetime. Farrow's interest in law prevailed despite family discouragement and taunts from classmates quoting Blackstone who classified women in the same category as infants and idiots. Farrow served as class president and graduated in 1903. She worked as a stenographer for a short time and in 1907 she became the first woman and youngest person elected City Treasurer of Kansas City. After serving two terms and traveling around the world, she came back to Kansas City and started the first firm of female lawyers in Kansas City. She struggled until she built her own clientele to maintain a modest practice and in 1916 she became the first woman in Missouri to defend a client charged with murder. She was appointed as divorce proctor for Jackson County later that year and earned the first public recognition as a lawyer by her peers. In 1917 she was a law student again and became the only individual to earn two law degrees at the Kansas City School of Law. She was the founding president of the Women's Bar Association of Kansas City and went on to earn a B.A. in sociology, a masters in social and political science and an LLM.