20 February 2024

ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, will hear oral arguments for a special docket at 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, February 27 at Saint Louis University School of Law, 100 North Tucker Boulevard, in St. Louis. The court sessions are open to the public. This special law school docket continues a tradition of the Eastern District convening court in areas outside of the Old Post Office in downtown St. Louis, where the court regularly conducts its sessions. 

Five judges from the court of appeals will participate in the docket: Judges Thomas C. Clark II, Kurt Odenwald, Gary M. Gaertner Jr., James M. Dowd and John Torbitzky. The judges will sit in panels of three to hear oral arguments in two appeals from the Jefferson County and Cape Girardeau County circuit courts. After the court session, the judges will participate in a question-and-answer session with audience members and students regarding courts, the role of judges and the judicial system.

Clark was appointed to the court of appeals in 2021 after serving as a circuit judge, an associate circuit judge and an assistant circuit attorney in the city of St. Louis. Odenwald was appointed to the court in 2007 after practicing law in St. Louis and as a staff attorney for the public defender’s office. Gaertner was appointed to the court of appeals in 2009. He previously served as a circuit judge, a federal prosecutor for the United States attorney’s office and a state prosecutor. Dowd was appointed in June 2015 after practicing law in St. Louis at The James M. Dowd Law Firm, Dowd & Dowd, and Watson & Dameron. Torbitzky was appointed in August 2021 after engaging in the private practice of law in St. Louis.

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, is the state’s largest appellate court, with offices in the historic Old Post Office in downtown St. Louis. There are 14 judges on the court, which handles approximately 50 percent of the intermediate appellate caseload in Missouri. The Eastern District has jurisdiction over appeals from trial courts in 25 counties and the city of St. Louis. The court regularly hears cases in St. Louis, Hannibal, Cape Girardeau and other locations in the Eastern District.

Contact: Laura Roy, clerk of court 

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District

(314) 539-4300