9 October 2008

ST. LOUIS – The Twenty-Second Circuit Judicial Commission announced the panel of three nominees to be submitted to Governor Blunt to fill the associate circuit judge vacancy in the city of St. Louis created by the elevation of Judge Michael K. Mullen to circuit judge.

Those nominated by the commission are Theresa Counts Burke, Gerard A. Nester and Commissioner Michael W. Noble.

Burke graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in 1985 and a law degree from St. Louis University School of Law in 1988. She has been a licensed attorney in private practice since her graduation from law school. Burke has served as a municipal judge for the city of St. Louis since 2001 and is also an adjunct professor at Fontbonne University.

Nester is an attorney in private practice and serves as the public administrator for the city of St. Louis. He is a graduate of St. Louis University’s School of Law and School of Business and Administration. First appointed to the office of public administrator and then elected in 2000 and 2004, he is responsible for the administration of hundreds of decedent, guardianship and conservatorship files pending before the probate division in the city of St. Louis. In his law practice, he focuses on representation of clients in probate and estate planning matters and related litigation. Nester is a member of the probate and trust and elder law committees of The Missouri Bar, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and the Lawyers’ Association as well as the Missouri Association of Public Administrators. He is a member of the Tilles Park Neighborhood Association, St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church and the Twenty-third Ward, where he lives with his with his wife and three children.

 

Noble was raised in St. Louis and graduated from Saint Louis University High School in 1984. He received his bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York in 1988 and his law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law in 2004. He worked as a patent attorney for Armstrong Teasdale and an assistant public defender in St. Louis city. In 2007, Noble was appointed drug court commissioner by the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court en banc. He resides in the Central West End with his two children.

The commission believes these candidates chosen from a field of extremely qualified individuals possess those qualities of compassion, intellect and high moral purpose essential to the fair and efficient administration of justice. Each of these people have that trial experience and sense of fairness that the commission knows is required to administer justice to the people of the city of St. Louis and the State of Missouri and proudly presents these names to Governor Blunt for his ultimate decision. The commission is confident that all of these individuals are capable of serving well and honorably if selected by the governor.

The members of the Twenty-Second Circuit Judicial Commission are: Chief Judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Nannette A. Baker, June Bosley Dabney-Gray, Stephen Doss, Thomas Schwartz and Mary Anne Sedey.

Note: Links to nominees' applications typically are disabled after the governor makes his appointment.

Contact: Laura Roy

(314)539-4300