The School of Law will celebrate the outstanding achievements of six individuals on April 21 at its annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner at The Ritz-Carlton.
Presenting the awards will be Dean Kent Syverud, J.D., the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor.
Distinguished Law Alumni Award recipients are Dave L. Cornfeld, Judge Orion L. Douglass, Norman S. London and Charles A. Newman.
Judge Raymond W. Gruender and Susan Nell Rowe will receive Distinguished Young Law Alumni Awards.
Cornfeld is being honored for his outstanding career accomplishments and contributions to the law school.
Nationally recognized for his expertise in tax and estate planning, Cornfeld is of counsel and a former senior partner in Husch & Eppenberger’s St. Louis office. Cornfeld co-authored the book Missouri Estate Planning & Will Drafting and Estate Administration Forms.
He served as senior associate articles editor for Probate & Property magazine, editor-in-chief of the journal The Tax Lawyer and vice-chairman of publications for the American Bar Association Section of Taxation.
Cornfeld was an adjunct professor in the School of Law’s graduate tax program for more than 20 years.
Douglass is being recognized for his career achievements and contributions to the community.
He is serving his fourth term on the State Court of Glynn County, Georgia.
Douglass is a past president of the Council of State Court Judges and a Fellow of the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia. He was a member of the Georgia Supreme Court’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts and a member of the Governor’s Special Advisory Panel for the Handicapped. Douglass and other prominent African-Americans formed the Fourteen Black Men of Glynn, a mentorship program. He is active with the Okefenokee Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Brunswick Second Presbyterian Church.
Douglass was inducted as an honorary initiate into Washington University’s Order of the Coif in 2004.
London is being honored for his success as a criminal defense lawyer.
During the last 40 years, he represented some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in Missouri and Illinois. In 1995, he accepted an appointment as federal public defender for the Eastern District of Missouri.
London has served as the Missouri attorney general’s representative to the Committee to Review Criminal Laws of Missouri; as special adviser to the Committee to Draft Pattern Instructions in Criminal Cases, adopted by the Missouri Supreme Court; and as a member of the state’s Urban Violence Task Force.
He has served as an adjunct professor at the law school since 1981.
Newman is being recognized for his career achievements and numerous contributions to the community and law school.
A partner at Bryan Cave, Newman has appeared in more than 260 class actions in federal and state courts in 33 states and Canada.
He co-founded The Employment Connection, a nonprofit agency providing job-readiness and placement services to ex-offenders. In 2005, FOCUS St. Louis honored Newman for his work to reduce recidivism. He has served on many civic boards, including the Board of Governors of the Missouri Bar, the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.
Newman also was a lecturer in law and helped establish the David M. Becker Public Service Fund.
Gruender is being recognized for his outstanding legal and civic service.
Gruender has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit since June 2004. From May 2001 until May 2004, he served as the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, overseeing 60 assistant United States attorneys.
Gruender spent nine years in private practice, first as an associate at Lewis, Rice & Fingersh and later as a partner at Thompson Coburn.
Active in civic affairs, Gruender serves on the allocations committee of the St. Louis Variety Club, from which he received the 2003 Have a Heart, Lend a Hand volunteer award.
He is a member of the School of Law’s National Council.
Rowe, a partner in the litigation department of The Stolar Partnership, is being recognized for her successful career and service to the legal community.
Focusing on employment law and general civil litigation, Rowe has represented employers in all employment issues, including the litigation of claims under federal and state employment statutes.
A member of the Board of Directors of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc. (LSEM) since 1992, Rowe has served as its president since 2002. Her leadership has been instrumental in preserving LSEM as an independent, community-based legal services program. She also is a member of the law school’s Alumni Executive Committee and mentor in the school’s mentoring program.
Rowe received the St. Louis Daily Record’s 2003 Woman of the Year Award and LSEM’s 2004 Equal Access to Justice Award.