What qualities do you expect to see in a highly effective leader?
Independence without a doubt, and by independence I mean the ability and willingness to follow through and go forward with what the person really feels is in the best interest of whatever groups of individuals they’re trying to lead as opposed to giving in to some external pressure and trying to do or go in the direction that someone else with their own self interest might want the person to go.-David Mason (30sec)
David Mason, Circuit Judge
22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri
LSL Class of 1991-92
Judge Mason is a 1983 graduate of the Washington University School of Law in Saint Louis, and a 1980 graduate of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was appointed a Circuit Judge in August of 1991 at the age of 35 and presides over major civil and criminal trials. In law school he was the 1983 champion of the American College of Trial Lawyers National Trial Competition, and was awarded the ACTL Lewis F. Powell Medal for Advocacy. In 1993 he was inducted as an honorary member into the American Board of Trial Advocates. In 1996 Judge Mason was elected to The American Law Institute. Judge Mason has been a member of the National Board of Directors of the American Judicature Society and in 1997 Mason was elected an honorary member of the Order of the Coif in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the legal profession.
In 1992 Judge Mason became the first recipient of the Austin Peay State University Outstanding Young Alumnus Award and in 1999 became the first recipient of the Washington University School of Law Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.
Mason has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Washington University School of Law for twenty years. In addition to his work at Washington University, Judge Mason has serves on the faculties of the Yeshiva University, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law Intensive Trial Advocacy Program in New York City and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He has also given more than 20 continuing legal education lectures across the country under the sponsorship of bar associations and law schools. A 2009 statewide “Best of Missouri” poll by The Missouri Lawyers Weekly, a statewide newspaper directed to the legal profession, named Judge Mason Missouri’s “Best Circuit Judge” for Eastern Missouri.
Active in numerous civic organizations involving housing and homelessness, he is a member of the boards of directors of Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis, Saint Patrick’s Center and serves as Chair of the Board of the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance and a member of the St. Louis Affordable Housing Commission. He was the founding Chairman of the Grand-Rock Community Redevelopment Corp. and served on the Steering Committee that oversaw the development of Renaissance Place after the demolition of the old Blumeyer Housing Project. He received the Habitat for Humanity Homecoming Award in 2005 for his work to provide affordable housing in the Saint Louis area. Judge Mason received the Thomas D. Cochran Award for community service from the Missouri Bar in 1991. Judge Mason has published over 15 commentaries in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on a variety of social issues.
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