James Russell Jackson

Russell Jackson grew up in a town of 5,000 people in Southwest Missouri. After graduating from Southwest Baptist University, he earned his law degree from the College of William & Mary in Virginia. For over twenty years he worked at Skadden, Arps in New York City, and was a partner in the firm’s Complex Mass Torts Group. There he primarily represented corporate defendants in product liability litigation and consumer fraud class actions. His cases were in courts all over the nation, from New York to Honolulu, and Anchorage down to the Texas coast. For nearly 20 years he wrote a regular column on products liability for the National Law Journal, and he taught products liability as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn and Fordham. He frequently conducts Continuing Legal Education lectures for groups of lawyers on issues involving class actions, consumer fraud, and products liability.

Russell has taught Complex Civil Litigation at Washington University since 2014. He is Counsel at Dowd Bennett LLP and still represents corporate defendants in aggregate litigation across the nation. He also helps clients implement effective self-regulation of their advertising and defends their ads before independent review boards.

Russell is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He was chair of the Product Liability Committee of the New York City Bar Association and was, for two years, an ABA Journal “Blawg 100” Honoree.

Besides the law, Russell enjoys BBQ, boating, bourbon, live music, theater, and exploring other cultures through travel. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Jazz St. Louis, a trustee of the St. Louis Public Library Foundation, and a board member of Friends of St. Louis Public Radio.