Richard P Sher | Attorney

RICHARD P. SHER

Mr. Sher is a member of the St. Louis law firm of Devereux Murphy LLC, where he maintains a broad practice in civil trial matters and alternative dispute resolution.  Before joining Devereux Murphy on January 1, 1996, Mr. Sher was a partner in the law firm of Peper, Martin, Jensen, Maichel and Hetlage, where he practiced for over twenty years.  While at Peper Martin, Mr. Sher served as a member of the management committee and as head of the litigation department.

Mr. Sher's practice involves the representation of clients before state and federal trial and appellate courts and administrative tribunals and in alternative dispute resolution processes in virtually all areas of commercial disputes, including corporate, real estate, securities, financial institutions, insurance, construction, products liability and employment.  He has handled and tried cases across the country for a wide spectrum of clients, ranging from publicly held companies and government agencies to small businesses and individuals.  Mr. Sher is extensively involved in bar activities at both the local and national levels.  He is a frequent writer and lecturer on litigation issues and alternative dispute resolution.

Mr. Sher also regularly serves as a neutral and represents clients in mediation and other alternative dispute resolution processes.  He is currently president of the St. Louis Chapter of the Association of Attorney-Mediators and is a former member of its national board of directors.  He is an active member of the mediation and arbitration panels of the American Arbitration Association, the National Association of Securities Dealers and other national ADR organizations.  He has received over thirty hours of mediation training from the American Academy of Attorney-Mediators and the center for Public Resources.  He has also served as a trainer in mediation and arbitration.

In addition to serving as a neutral and representing clients in mediation, Mr. Sher frequently counsels clients on the use of mediation and other ADR techniques and the development of formal programs for the use of these processes.  He has also made numerous presentations to corporate law departments and insurance claims departments on these subjects.

In 1994, Mr. Sher drafted the local rule on mediation of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri; in 1995 he was appointed to the court committee responsible for implementing the rule and in 1997 he served as advisor for the court's pilot mediation program.  He also served as advisor to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on implementation of that court's mediation and early neutral evaluation programs.

Mr. Sher has written and spoken extensively on mediation.  In 1995, he organized the first St. Louis Symposium on ADR and spoke at this program on mediation and the evolution of ADR.  In 1994, he served as a trainer at a seminar presented jointly by the American Arbitration Association and the National Association of Securities Dealers on securities arbitration.  He is the author of "Mediation" which appeared in the Fall 1994 edition of the St. Louis Bar Journal, and of "Early Neutral Evolution" which appeared in the May 1995 edition of the St. Louis Lawyer.   He is active in both the Mediation Committee of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section and the ADR Committee of the ABA Litigation Section (where he served as Eighth Circuit Reporter for the ADR Newsletter), as well as the ADR committee of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.  Mr. Sher organized and served as co-editor of the Fall 1994 issue of the St. Louis Bar Journal , which was devoted exclusively to ADR.

Mr. Sher is a graduate, with honors, of Northwestern University (1972) and of the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law (1974), where he received his J.D. degree, with distinction, was elected to the Order of Bench and Robe and was a member of Law Review and Articles Editor of The Urban Lawyer.