School of Law Inducts 12 New Members into Order of the Fleur de Lis Hall of Fame

Judge Adelman was a magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1992 until 2015, and served as Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge from 2001 to 2008. He worked in the Public Defender’s Office in the City of St. Louis before becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri, a position he held for 20 years handling many high-profile prosecutions. He was named the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1980 and served for the next 12 years before becoming a judge. Judge Adelman served on the district’s court security committee for his entire judicial career and was especially proud of his service on the Model Criminal Jury Instructions Subcommittee of the Eighth Judicial Circuit. He also taught seminars on white collar crime as an adjunct professor at Washington University School of Law and SLU LAW.

Judge Adelman's award was accepted by his wife, Christelle Adelman-Adler.

Judge Susan E. Block is currently a principal at Paule Camazine & Blumenthal, after retiring as a circuit judge and administrative judge in 2004, with 25 years of judicial service. She holds various leadership positions with the National Council of Jewish Women, Win With Women, HomeWorks! and the National Women’s Political Caucus, and she is a founding member of Caring for Kids. She has been an adjunct professor at Saint Louis University, Washington University and Emory University Schools of Law, specializing in trial practice and technique courses. She focuses her practice in family law matters and is viewed as a “lawyer’s lawyer” among her colleagues.

Kevin C. Curran is currently First Assistant in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Missouri. Curran has worked in various capacities for both the Missouri State Public Defender System and the Office of the Federal Public Defender. He is an adjunct professor at SLU LAW and Washington University School of Law focusing on death penalty litigation and trial advocacy, and he currently supervises the internship program in the Office of the Federal Public Defender. Curran is a member of the Eighth Circuit Model Criminal Jury Instructions Subcommittee, has served on the National Institute for Justice and the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence Post-conviction Issues Working Group and is a past president of the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Curran's award was presented by his daughter, third-year law student Nora Curran.

Judge Jimmie M. Edwards is a circuit court judge of the 22nd Circuit Court in Missouri for St. Louis and has served for 25 years, five of which he served as the administrative judge of the Family Court and chief juvenile court judge. Judge Edwards has made a significant mark in civil law, presiding over more than 500 jury trials, and he has handled important state litigation, including the Missouri Tobacco Case. He is a member of the National Center for State Courts Board of Directors and the Missouri Supreme Court Civil Rules Committee, and he chairs the State Judicial Records Committee.

Anita C. Esslinger retired in 2016 as a partner and co-leader of the Global Anti-Corruption Team at Bryan Cave, where she worked in their St. Louis, Washington, D.C. and London offices. Her practice in the area of international business transactions included a variety of corporate and commercial issues, and she has written and spoken regularly on these topics, including at the Cambridge University International Symposium on Economic Crime and in Beijing, Tanjin and Hong Kong on the occasion of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. She also served as a World Bank monitor of integrity compliance by a European company as part of the World Bank’s voluntary disclosure program.

Jesse A. Goldner received his A.B. in 1969 and his M.A. in 1971, both from Columbia University, and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1973. He joined the SLU LAW faculty in 1973, where he began his tenure developing the School’s civil and criminal clinical programs before becoming the co-founder of the Center for Health Law Studies, which he directed for 12 years. He has done extensive research on issues relating to the law and ethics of research on human subjects. He’s had leadership roles on several councils overseeing human research and accreditation, and he currently serves on the board of directors of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists. Goldner served as SLU LAW associate dean for academic affairs for three years, and has been a visiting professor at a number of American and foreign law schools.

Roger L. Goldman is the nation’s foremost expert on police licensing and license revocation laws and is also a leading expert on the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional law. Goldman received his A.B. from Harvard University in 1963 and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1966. He joined the SLU LAW faculty in 1971, where he taught courses in civil procedure, criminal procedure, constitutional law and federal courts for the next 40 years and received multiple writing and teaching awards; he served as associate dean twice and as interim dean for one year. In addition to helping states write and adopt laws to prevent repeat police officer misconduct, Goldman has written several articles and books on constitutional law and criminal procedure and is frequently sought out by both national and local media for commentary.

Bernard A Reinert is the founder of and a principal in Reinert Weishaar Attorneys at Law. His practice areas have been fidelity and surety bond claims and litigation, banking and financial institutions, business and commercial litigation, construction law, trials and appeals, and he has a national reputation as a practitioner and publisher on surety and fidelity issues. After receiving his law degree in 1962, Reinert served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Omer Poos. He is an active member of his Kirkwood community, serving as a member of the Kirkwood R7 School District Board of Education (1976-1991) and as chairman of the City of Kirkwood Civil Service Commission (1992 to the present).

Judge Karen E. Schreier is a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota, currently stationed in Sioux Falls. She spent 11 years as a partner and associate at Hagen, Wilka, Schreier & Archer, P.C., practicing civil and business litigation, administrative law, estate planning and family law, before becoming the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota and later the first woman to serve as a federal district judge in South Dakota. She currently serves as chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System and is a current board member of South Dakota Children’s Home Society.

Mary Anne Sedey is currently a partner in the firm Sedey Harper, P.C. and has represented employees in Missouri for 40 years.  Sedey has served as president of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) and founded its St. Louis chapter, and was president of the executive board of the nonprofit Workplace Fairness. She served a six-year term on the Judicial Commission of the 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri and is currently a member of the executive committee of the Theodore McMillian Inns of Court, as well as a number of other legal organizations, and she has taught courses and spoken around the country on trial tactics and employment law issues.

Reuben A. Shelton recently retired as lead litigation counsel for Monsanto Company, where he handled antitrust and intellectual property litigation as well as international business litigation and global policy matters. Previously, he was special chief counsel in the Office for the Missouri Attorney General and worked for Ameren Union Electric Company for 14 years as head of the Tort Litigation Department. He is past president of BAMSL, the St. Louis Bar Foundation, and the Missouri Bar Association and currently serves on the Missouri Bar Board of Trustees – the first African American elected to those positions. He has also been involved in leadership roles in numerous other legal and nonprofit organizations and is now vice chair of the Missouri Development Finance Board.

Judge Lisa S. Van Amburg is currently an appellate judge for the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District. She launched her career in employment law and labor law, her specialty for 27 years, working at firms VanAmburg, Chackes, Carlson and Spritzer; Schuchat, Cook &Werner; and Anderson, Everett, Sedey and VanAmburg and arguing in several notable discrimination cases. In 2003, she was appointed to the bench as a circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri in the City of St. Louis, and was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2012.