Stouffer, James P. (J.P.)

Mr. Stokes began practicing law in St. Louis in 1971 after graduating from St. Louis University School of Law. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University Of Notre Dame. He is married to Patricia Wendling-Stokes, an attorney with the City of St. Louis. They have lived in the Central West End of the city for thirty years.

Mr. Stokes and Dan Devereaux formed this litigation law firm in 1976. He has specialized in the field of medical negligence since that time. Mr. Stokes and the other partners in the firm presented two of the landmark Missouri cases in the area of medical/hospital negligence, Daniel Callahan vs. Cardinal Glennon Hospital, 863 SW2d 852, and Mathew Scott vs SSM Health Care, 40 SW3d 560. Mr. Stokes has served on the Board of Governors of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys (MATA). He is also an invited member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), a national trial lawyer organization. In the area of community service, he serves on the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity-St. Louis, and for the last sixteen years he has been Chairman of their fundraising efforts. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Gateway Homeless Shelter. The shelter provides housing and care for homeless women and their children in the City of St. Louis. He also serves on the fundraising committee for the "Danny Boy Scholarship Fund" which raises funds to provide scholarships for the inner-city middle school students.

In the field of medical negligence, he served as an invited lecturer last year at the Convention of the National Obstetricians and Gynecologists Association and has lectured in the field of medical negligence for residents in orthopedic surgery at St. Louis University Medical School.