Don M. Downing

Don Downing is a former Missouri Chief Deputy Attorney General and managing partner of the St. Louis office of one of the region's largest law firms.

As Chief Deputy Attorney General - Missouri's top appointed legal officer - from 1993 to 1995, Mr. Downing was the lead lawyer in cases involving consumer protection, antitrust, environmental, securities and many other areas of law. He appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States four times, including one case he personally argued. He also argued cases on behalf of the state six times before the Missouri Supreme Court, and tried substantial cases in federal and state court.
Mr. Downing was responsible for hiring, training and supervising more than 170 assistant attorneys general.

His private practice has focused on complex commercial and class action litigation. He has represented large and small businesses in complex commercial disputes, including class actions, banks in insurance coverage litigation and other commercial disputes, Big Four accounting firms in securities and malpractice litigation, and cities, school districts and other public entities in actions against providers of products and services.

Mr. Downing has also represented farmers in numerous cases. He has been appointed national co-lead counsel for thousands of plaintiff farmers in multi-district litigation involving contamination of the U.S. rice supply by genetically modified rice.  He has been lead trial counsel in three bellwether rice cases, and has obtained plaintiffs’ verdicts totaling in the millions of dollars. Mr. Downing recently led a negotiation that resulted in a global settlement of that litigation for $750 million. He has represented hundreds of farmers in several states and recovered millions of dollars in cases involving defective cotton seed and crop damage caused by herbicide drift. He has obtained a multimillion dollar settlement for a class of farmers in a federal court lawsuit against the federal government. He also has represented farmers in several states in antitrust claims against seed and technology providers.

Additionally, Mr. Downing has represented thousands of consumers in class action litigation against cellular telephone and internet service providers, drug companies, hospitals, and other entities that engaged in deceptive and unfair trade practices.

A native of Kennett, Missouri, Mr. Downing earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1979, and his law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in 1982, where he served as an editor on the Missouri Law Review. After graduation from law school, Mr. Downing served as law clerk for the Honorable Edward L. Filippine, District Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Mr. Downing has served on the University of Missouri-Columbia Law School Foundation Board of Trustees and the Law Library Campaign Committee. He recently received the Law School’s highest award, the Citation of Merit. He is also an active member of the University of Missouri Jefferson Club, serving as the chairman of its annual St. Louis regional dinner. In 2009, he was appointed by Governor Jay Nixon and confirmed by the Missouri Senate to serve on the University of Missouri Board of Curators for a term ending January 1, 2015.

He is licensed to practice in Missouri and Illinois, as well as before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Eighth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

Mr. Downing is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the categories of Commercial Litigation, Bank Litigation, and Antitrust Law, and among the "Best Lawyers in St. Louis" in St. Louis Magazine. He has an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, which is the highest given. Mr. Downing has been annually selected to Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers [among the top 5 percent of lawyers in Missouri and Kansas] since 2006, in the area of Business Litigation. He is included in the 2011 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America.