John Drake

John C. Drake teaches civil pre-trial practice and settlement. Professor Drake is a litigator and trial lawyer with broad experience in complex business litigation, health law, and consumer protection matters and has served as trial counsel in state and federal courts. He currently serves as associate general counsel at Centene Corporation, a Fortune 25 healthcare company based in Clayton, Missouri. Previously, he managed global litigation for Energizer Holdings and was a litigator at Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale. P.C. He began his legal career as a litigation associate at the global law firm Dentons.

Professor Drake has served as a mentor and diversity advocate throughout his legal career. He has been active with the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, the Consumer Protection Committee of the Antitrust Division of the American Bar Association, and Mound City Bar Association. In 2022, Professor Drake was appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to serve a 6-year term as a member of the Missouri Board of Law Examiners.

Professor Drake graduated magna cum laude from Washington University School of Law in 2012. He was an executive notes and projects editor on the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy. He also participated in Trial Team, winning the inaugural Missouri Attorney General’s Cup trial team competition, at which he was named Best Defense Advocate. He was a semi-finalist in the 2011 Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Competition and externed for a federal appellate judge through the Washington University Judicial Externship Clinic. He was also active with the Black Law Students Association, serving as academic skills chair.

Professor Drake earned his journalism degree from Baylor University in 2002, serving as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper. He began his journalism career as an education and city hall reporter for The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., where he covered everything from suburban education policy to presidential politics. His reporting career then took him to the Associated Press in South Carolina and The Boston Globe, where he served as Boston city hall reporter.