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HON. STEPHEN S. DUNN was appointed as a district judge for the Sixth Judicial District, effective October 1, 2008, filling the vacancy left by the appointment of Judge Ronald Bush who was appointed as a federal magistrate judge. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Dunn was a partner in the law firm of Merrill & Merrill, Chartered, where he had practiced law for 31 years. He served as a part-time federal magistrate from 1990 to 1992. Judge Dunn is a Twin Falls native and Brigham Young University graduate. HON. DAVID C. NYE has lived in Idaho for 23 years. Upon graduating from law school, he moved to Burley to clerk for Judge George Granata. Following his clerkship, he moved to Pocatello and associated with the firm of Merrill & Merrill, Chartered, where he practiced for 20 years. In 2007, he was appointed by Governor Otter to fill the vacancy created when Judge Randy Smith took a position with the 9th Circuit. He is a district judge in the Sixth Judicial District, currently serving as the administrative district judge and also runs the felony diversionary court in Bannock County. HON. RICHARD ST. CLAIR served as a district judge in the Seventh Judicial District from 1996 to 2007, sitting primarily in Bonneville County, Idaho. He served on several Idaho Supreme Court committees, including the Judicial Education Committee, Rule 16 Civil Mediation Taskforce, and Court Reporter Rules Taskforce, and briefly as an administrative district judge. Judge St. Clair helped administer the Bonneville County Adult Mental Health Court from 2002 through 2007. He retired from the bench in 2007, but currently serves as a senior district judge on a part time basis in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Judicial Districts, provides mentoring services for newly appointed district judges statewide, and does civil mediations. Judge St. Clair is a third generation Idahoan, a 1972 graduate of the University of Idaho College of Law, and holds an L.L.M. degree from the George Washington University National Law Center. He served three years in the Army JAG Corps in Washington, D.C. in the Pentagon and handling appellate court-martial felony cases before the U.S. Army Court of Military Review between 1972 and 1975. Between 1976 and 1996, he was engaged in private law practice in Idaho Falls. HON. JON J. SHINDURLING completed a B.A. degree in English at Arizona State University in 1972, and a J.D. degree at the University of Idaho in 1977. He began legal practice in Twin Falls in 1977, moving to Idaho Falls in 1990. Judge Shindurling left private practice in 1994 to take a position with the Bonneville County prosecuting attorney, where he served for five years as chief deputy. In 2000, he was appointed to the District Court in the Seventh Judicial District by Governor Kempthorne, and has since been re-elected to that position in 2002, 2006, and 2010. In April 2009, he was elected by his fellow district judges and currently serves as the administrative district judge for the Seventh Judicial District. In addition to his regular district wide judicial and administrative duties, with resident chambers in Bonneville County, he supervised the Felony Drug Court in Bingham County from 2001 to 2009, and helped establish and has supervised the Seventh District's JoAn Wood Pilot Project problem solving/dual diagnosis court since 2008. MODERATOR - GARY L. COOPER has practiced law in Pocatello since 1975. He graduated from the University of Idaho Law School in 1975 and was admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in Idaho (1975), the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (1991) and the United States Supreme Court (1995). Currently he serves on the United States Federal Court Local Rules Committee and was the 1999/2000 president of the Portneuf Inn of Court, a member of the American Inns of Court. During his years of legal experience, he has tried more than 50 civil jury trials to verdict as lead counsel and has second-chaired numerous other civil jury trials in both state and federal courts. Mr. Cooper was one of two lead attorneys in a five-and-one-half-month products liability jury trial in which a favorable verdict was obtained for his client and sustained on appeal. He has tried more than 80 court trials and administrative hearings, including numerous cases before the Idaho Industrial Commission. He has also represented participants in many UM/UIM arbitrations and labor arbitrations. Mr. Cooper has argued 27 appeals before the Idaho Supreme Court, the Idaho Court of Appeals and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Cooper's litigation experience includes insurance defense, worker's compensation defense, insurance coverage issues, insurance bad faith defense, personal injury, product liability, and professional malpractice, RICO, ERISA and Indian Law.
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