5 May 2008

ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis County Judicial Commission announced the panel of three nominees to be submitted to Governor Blunt to fill the associate circuit judge vacancy in St. Louis County created by the appointment of Judge Ellen Levy Siwak as circuit judge.

Those nominated by the commission are Kristine A. Kerr, Lawrence J. Permuter and John D. Warner Jr.

Kerr was appointed family court commissioner by the St. Louis County Court en banc in September 2004 and reappointed in April 2008. She received her bachelor of arts degree in economics from Brown University and received her juris doctorate from Boston University. Kerr clerked for the Honorable Kent Karohl, Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, from 1986 to 1987. She engaged in private practice from 1987 through 1988 and joined the Missouri State Public Defender System in 1988. She worked as an assistant public defender in St. Louis City and defended death penalty cases with the Capital Litigation Division.  She became first assistant public defender in St. Louis City in 1993 and assistant public defender in St. Louis County in 2003. From this position, she was appointed family court commissioner. Kerr is a member of the St. Louis County Bar Association, the Women Lawyer's Association, the Lawyer's Association, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, the National Association of Women Judges and the St. Louis Knitter's Guild. She and her husband live in St. Louis County with their two children.

Permuter received his bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Missouri at St. Louis in 1970. He obtained his law degree from Washington University School of Law in 1973. He has practiced as a trial lawyer for 35 years and has represented plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. Permuter is married to Darlene Permuter. They reside in Richmond Heights.

Warner graduated from St. Louis University Law School in 1982 and was engaged in the practice of law at the law firm of Kortenhof & Ely from 1982 to 2000. In May 2000, he formed a law firm with Jeffrey P. Gault in Clayton, Missouri. The firm represents plaintiffs and defendants in personal injury matters and employees in workers' compensation matters. He is a member of the St. Mary Magdalen parish in Brentwood, Missouri and was unanimously elected to two consecutive terms as President of the St. Mary Magdalen School Board (2006-2007 and 2007-2008). He is an active participant in the Mentor St. Louis Program and he is a judge in the S.T.A.R. Court Program in the Ferguson/Florissant School District. He is a member of the Missouri and Illinois bar and is also licensed to practice law before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri and the Supreme Court of the United States.

The commission believes that 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 St. Louis County 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-First Judicial Circuit Commission are: Chief Judge of the Missouri Court of Eastern District Patricia L. Cohen, Debbie Champion, Patrick Dudley, Gerard Noce and Laurie Westfall.

For interview requests or questions about the panel, please contact Laura Roy, clerk of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, at (314) 539-4300.

Update: The governor appointed Lawrence Permuter to fill this vacancy.