The late Judge Paul J. Simon to be memorialized

The late Judge Paul J. Simon is to be remembered in a special session of the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District on Tuesday, May 10. Simon died on June 6 last year at 87.

Attorneys Kelsy Lantz and Chris Saracino, who are Simon’s grandchildren, will be two of five people to speak at the event starting at 3 p.m.

“He went out of his way to help everybody, and he was a constant professional on the bench,” Saracino said.

Simon served as a judge for the Eastern District from 1979 until he retired in 2004. He continued to serve as a senior settlement judge until 2010. 

Simon earned his law degree at St. Louis University while working full time. He first worked in private practice with Floyd McBride. He served in the Missouri House of Representatives and on the 7th Ward Democratic Committee early in his career. He also worked as a deputy city coroner, a special assistant Missouri attorney general, and the Chief Deputy Clerk of the Magistrate Court of the City of St. Louis.

In 1975, he was elected president of the City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen and re-elected four years later in 1979, the same year Gov. Joseph Teasdale appointed him to the Eastern District. He served as chief judge from 1989 to 1990.

Simon served on the Missouri Bar’s Board of Governors as well as secretary and chair of its Division of Judicial Administration. He also chaired the Bench and Bar Committee of The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and was a member of the Missouri Supreme Court Legislative Steering Committee.

Simon is survived by his four children, Sam Simon, Jim Simon, Jayne Vollmer and Joan Saracino, as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The Eastern District’s en banc special session will be held at the Old Post Office on 815 Olive Street in St. Louis. In addition to Saracino, Judges Mary R. Russell and Gary M. Gaertner as well as attorney Ted Tahan will speak at the event.