He taught school while reading law, and obtained employment as a deputy in the clerk's office of Pettis County, Missouri.When the county clerk resigned a few months later, Lamm was appointed to serve the remainder of that term.In 1904, he received the Republican nomination for a seat on the state supreme court, thereafter winning the general election.[4] He was the Republican candidate for governor in the 1916 campaign and though he ran ahead of the ticket, he was defeated by Frederick D. Gardner in a Democratic landslide election.Lamm resisted efforts to persuade him to run for the office again in 1920, instead backing Arthur M. Hyde, who won the nomination and the election.
