JAMES DOWD

James Dowd is the former Chief Judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals and is now an attorney in private practice. He, along with three other attorneys won a $385 million dollar 18 year old toxic tort lawsuit and was named Missouri Lawyers of the Year by  Missouri Lawyers Weekly.

While serving as a judge on the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, presided over thousands of criminal, civil, probate, and equity cases. Served in a civil equity division hearing all cases sounding in equity, including declaratory judgment actions involving insurance contracts, trusts, statutes and ordinances, election contests, motions to enforce settlement, injunctions, temporary restraining orders, land tax cases, the right to arbitration pursuant to contract, administrative review matters, Sunshine Law cases, constructive trusts, partitions, and discrimination under Title VII, Missouri Human Rights Acts, and mandamus actions.

As Presiding Judge of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, which is a 31 Judge court of general jurisdiction, duties included general supervisory authority over court personnel, the annual assignment of all judges to their respective divisions, managing the division one trial and motion dockets, a well as exercising authority over the court’s budget, local court rules, court automation, operational support and public education. The administrative duties of the Presiding Judge also included making committee assignments and naming the chairpersons for all nine standing committees of the Court. The Presiding Judge establishes the agenda for and presides over all regular and emergency Court en banc sessions, presides over meetings of the Advisory Committee to the Presiding Judge, monitors all dockets pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 17, and works with all judges and court personnel to establish compliance with the time standards as set out in Rule 17. The Presiding Judge also acts as spokesperson for the Court in all matters involving the press and the public and also presents the Court’s budget to the members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for the City of St. Louis which is comprised of the Mayor, the President of the Board of Aldermen, and the Comptroller. •

A major part of the daily responsibilities of the Presiding Judge entails presiding over Division One’s motion and trial dockets. This duty requires the Presiding Judge to rule on all pretrial motions in all circuit court level civil jury cases until they were ready for trial. Presiding over the Division One motion docket entails ruling on virtually all motions for summary judgment, to dismiss, to make more definite and certain, for continuances, default judgments, judgments on the pleadings, motions to compel discovery, for sanctions, and any other pre-trial motion permitted under the applicable Supreme Court Rules. The cases included all types of negligence cases, • i.e., auto, medical, legal, accounting, premises liability, eminent domain, as well as products liability, breach of contract, race, sex and age discrimination cases.

As a member of The National Youth Summit Steering Committee, James Dowd has play an integral role in developing The Summit and in establishing communications with The White House.

LINKS:

Attorney at Law: http://www.attorneyatlawmagazine.com/st-louis/attorney-of-the-month-james-r-dowd-attorney-counselor-at-law-llc/

Missouri Lawyer: http://molawyersmedia.com/2012/01/27/video-missouri-lawyers-of-the-year/