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Nimrod Chapel

Areas of Expertise:

Administrative Law, Business Litigation, Civil Rights, Consumer, Contracts, Employment, Environmental Law, Personal Injury, Toxic Torts

Services:

Mediator, Arbitrator

Professional Experience:

Nimrod “Rod” Chapel, Jr., is a Missouri trial lawyer and has been a certified mediator since 2007. Rod is the former Commissioner of the Administrative Hearing Commission who has dedicated his professional and private life to helping people stand up for their rights.

Rod founded The Chapel Law Group, LLC, to create a vehicle for the protection of workers and their families through not only the court system, but also administrative and legislative avenues and venues. Chapel’s advocacy has protected the rights of workers in Missouri, impacted multi-million dollar settlements, and helped to make Missouri a safer place to live and work for everyone.

As a person who entered the workforce early in life, Rod knows the value of an honest days work. He served the State of Missouri at numerous levels after working in a variety of construction and food service positions for more than a decade.

Rod believes every person that works must be treated fairly and receive the compensation agreed upon and/or required by law.

Rod’s history of public service began before he was a lawyer when he exterened as a summer clerk at the Missouri Supreme Court where he later clerked full time and served as a JEA (Chief of Staff) to the then Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Duane Benton.

Most recently though, Rod served as a Commissioner on the Administrative Hearing Commission. The Administrative Hearing Commission is a neutral, independent, administrative tribunal. The bulk of the cases heard there relate to licensure discipline, applicant who want to be licensed and tax issues. The Administrative Hearing Commission has jurisdiction in over one hundred (107) statutorily specified matters including state tax, professional licensing and Medicaid provider issues. Decisions are made under a contested case procedure, usually involving a contested hearing. All decisions are subject to judicial review and published on its website and by Westlaw and Lexis. Rod completed his six year term in September of 2013.

Rod has held over 900 hearings and issued nearly as many decisions. Rod led the Commission as Managing Commissioner and as the Presiding Commissioner for years.

Prior to that, Rod served as the 12th Director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations where he lead the only department in the state that exclusively protects workers, provides a safety net for those who want to work and addresses wrongs such as discrimination, sexual harassment, and other unsafe working conditions. As Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Chapel managed over 900 employees with an annual budget of $145,000,000. The Department is responsible for administering programs that provide a financial safety net for workers to offset the loss of a job because of injury or layoff, regulate wages for public works and construction projects, promote safe and health workplaces, mediate and issue resolutions between certain management and labor groups and enforce Missouri’s anti-discriminatory statutes in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodation.

Rod also served as General Counsel/Director of Legal Services for the Missouri Department of Revenue. Armed with an LLM in Taxation and years of experience litigating and adjudicating state tax controversies, Rod looks forward to litigating in this complex area of practice.

Rod’s service to the state and his communities is predicated upon his work as a trial lawyer. Rod won his first trial before he entered law school. Prior to returning to the State of Missouri, he worked in Kansas City and around the state as a trial lawyer with legends such as Sly James, John Garner, Greg Leyh and many other talented lawyers who nurtured his desire and ability. He worked on litigation such as the state’s case against tobacco companies that resulted one of the largest settlements in the state’s history. He participated in the litigation against Robert Courtney.

Education:

B.A., Oklahoma State University, 1992
J.D., Tulane Law School, 1995
LL.M., Washington University School of Law, 1997

Admissions:

Missouri

Affiliations:

The American Bar Association
- Judicial and Tax Sections 2007-2010
The National Association of State Bar Tax Sections, 2006-2010
The National Bar Association
- Judicial Section 2007-2010
The Missouri Bar
- Annual Conference Planning Committee 2006-2008, 2010
- On-line Legal Research Taskforce Member, 2006-2007
- Legal Education Committee Member, appointed 1998-2010
- Solo and Small Firm Conference Planning Committee, 1999-2010
- Taxation Committee Chair, 2005-2010
- Leadership Academy, 2001-2003
- Mid-Missouri Regional Coordinator for Speakers Bureau, 1998
Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
- Labor and Employment Law Committee Vice Chair
- Young Lawyers Section ABA Representative, 2004-2005
- Leadership Academy
Jackson County Bar Association
- 2nd Vice President of Jackson County Bar Association, 1999-2000

Honors: