The POWER List: Jeremiah W. “Jay” Nixon

Dowd Bennett, St. Louis 

After serving as the 55th governor of the state of Missouri, Jay Nixon joined Dowd Bennett in early 2017. His practice often brings him before appellate courts on matters affecting public policy.  

In 2018, he won a case in the Missouri Supreme Court to secure regulatory permission for the Grain Belt Express Clean Line, a 780-mile line that will carry wind-generated electricity through northern Missouri. The same year, he argued in the Supreme Court in favor of a law that allows insurance companies to intervene in certain complex settlements. 

Last year, he used his brief-writing talents on behalf of conservation groups that weighed in on two pending cases — a Court of Appeals Southern District case that could determine the fate of Eleven Point State Park, and a Supreme Court case that involves the spending authority of the Department of Conservation. Missouri Lawyers Media honored him as a Legal Champion at the 2022 Missouri Lawyers Awards for those efforts. 

Nixon, a Democrat, served as governor from 2009 to 2017. He previously served four terms as the state’s attorney general, which led him to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court twice. He earned his law degree in 1981 from the University of Missouri.