Hon. Miguel A. Torres
U.S. Magistrate Judge
Judge Torres is a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Texas and sits in El Paso. Prior to joining the bench, he engaged in private practice in El Paso. He is a graduate of New Mexico State University and the University of Texas School of Law. Judge Torres is the Immediate Past Chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges.
Kristen L. Mix
Judge
U.S. Magistrate
Judge Mix, appointed to the federal bench in 2007, serves as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Colorado and sits in Denver. She has served on the Judicial Conference of the United States’ Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judge System, and on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado’s Local Rules Committee. She is the current President of the Federal Magistrate Judges’ Association and Past Chair of the Colorado Judicial Coordinating Council.
Karen Klein
U.S. Magistrate Judge (ret.)
Judge Karen Klein served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of North Dakota for 30 years, from 1985 to 2015, acting as Chief Magistrate Judge between 1993 and 2015. Judge Klein established mediation as part of the federal district court’s civil case management program in 1985 and became one of the first legal professionals in North Dakota to mediate civil cases, successfully mediating thousands of disputes as a judge, establishing a national reputation as a settlement expert. Since retiring from the bench, she has established Karen Klein Mediation, LLC, a fulltime ADR practice, serving the legal community throughout North Dakota and Minnesota.
John W. Kurtz
Partner
Hubbard & Kurtz
Mr. Kurtz is a trial lawyer based in Kansas City, Missouri. He primarily represents individuals in personal injury, wrongful death, products liability, medical malpractice, and fraud matters. He has tried over 100 cases to verdict and settled many more through mediation in federal and state courts. He earned an A.B. at the University of Missouri, M.A. at the University of Pennsylvania, and J.D. at the University of Missouri School of Law.
Hon. Willie J Epps, Jr.
United States Magistrate Judge
United States Western District of Missouri
The Honorable Willie J. Epps, Jr. is a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Missouri. Judge Epps was born in Mississippi and raised in Missouri. He is a graduate of St. Louis Country Day School, Amherst College, and Harvard Law School. He began his legal career in service to our country as a U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, and Assistant Special Counsel for The Waco Investigation. Later, he was named chief compliance officer for a Fortune 500 company, partner at two law firms, and head of litigation for a financial services company.
Judge Epps is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He serves on the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges. He teaches annually at Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop. Prior to being appointed a federal judge, Judge Epps was listed in The Best Lawyers in America and
Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers.
Hon. Elizabeth S. Stong
Judge
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of New York
Judge Elizabeth S. Stong has served as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York since 2003. Before entering on duty, she was a litigation partner and associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York, an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and law clerk to Hon. A. David Mazzone, U.S. District Judge in the District of Massachusetts.
Judge Stong is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Council and Membership Committee of the American Law Institute. She is also a Trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the Practising Law Institute, a member of the board of P.R.I.M.E. Finance, an international dispute resolution organization that promotes judicial education in complex financial disputes, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Harvard Law School Association of New York City. She is co-chair of the New York Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, serves on the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, represents the ABA’s National Conference of Federal Trial Judges in the ABA House of Delegates, and is a member of the Council of the ABA Business Law Section. She serves as co-chair of the New York City Bar Council on the Profession, a member of the New York County Lawyers Association Justice Center Advisory Board, and a board member of the New York Law Institute. She is an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School and St. John’s University School of Law.
Judge Stong is active in international judicial capacity building and has trained judges on five continents, including in Central Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula, as an expert with the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and U.S. Department of Commerce Commercial Law Development Program. She has also consulted with the Supreme Court of China and People’s High Courts in Beijing and Guangzhou, and has participated in judicial workshops in Cambodia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. She is an elected member of the European Law Institute and an Adviser to the ELI-UNIDROIT Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure project.
Judge Stong previously served as President of the Harvard Law School Association, chair of the International Judicial Relations Committee of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, Vice President of the Federal Bar Council, Vice President of the Board of Directors of New York City Bar Fund Inc. and the City Bar Justice Center, Chair of the New York City Bar’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and Vice Chair of its Judiciary Committee, the Board of Directors of the International Insolvency Institute, and an officer of the ABA Business Law Section. She was also a member of the board of MFY Legal Services, Inc., one of the largest providers of free civil legal services to low-income residents of New York City, and served on the ABA’s Standing Committee on the American Judicial System, Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education, Commission on Women in the Profession, and Commission on Homelessness and Poverty.
Judge Stong received the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Freda Nisnewitz Award for Pro Bono Service, the New York Institute of Credit’s Hon. Cecelia H. Goetz Award, the ABA Business Law Section’s Glass Cutter Award, and the MFY Legal Services Scales of Justice Award, among other recognitions.
Judge Stong received her A.B. magna cum laude and her J.D. from Harvard University.
Sheena R. Hamilton
City Counselor
City of St. Louis Civil Law Department
Sheena Hamilton (she/her) serves as City Counselor for the City of St. Louis overseeing its Civil Law Department. She began her service to the City after practicing law as an equity partner at Dowd Bennett LLP where she served as client manager for multiple Fortune 100 companies and government or quasi-government offices by managing litigation, investigations, budgets, staffing and compliance. Before joining Dowd Bennett, she clerked for the then Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Hamilton serves as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Saint Louis University School of Law, and is a member of both Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated – Gamma Omega Chapter and the Archway (MO) Chapter of the Links Incorporated.
Hamilton concluded a three-year term on the Board of Governors for the American Bar Association (ABA) in August 2021 and, currently, serves as a Missouri Bar delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. Before her ABA Board service, she served multiple terms in executive leadership of the Mound City Bar Association and Women Lawyers Association of Greater St. Louis locally. She was awarded the Women’s Justice Award titled Litigation Practitioner by Missouri Lawyers Weekly in 2017, the John C. Shepherd Professionalism Award by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis in 2019, and the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honor in 2021.