Hon. David Herndon (Ret.)

David R. Herndon became a United States District Judge for the Southern District of Illinois in 1998.  He served in that district until January 7, 2019 when he retired from the bench.  During his tenure on the district court Herndon served as Chief Judge from 2007-2014 and served on the Judicial Conference of the United States committee for Judicial Security from 2011 through 2018, chairing the committee during the last three years of his committee service.  Prior to his federal tenure, Herndon served as an Associate Judge in the Third Judicial Circuit, Bond and Madison Counties, Illinois.  His service there included a major civil docket, after rotating through many of the other divisions in the court.  His career as a trial lawyer, spanning fourteen years prior to taking the bench, was spent largely in the representation of plaintiff FELA claimants.  During Judge Herndon’s service on the federal bench he was assigned a number of MDL cases, class actions and mass actions. Currently, Herndon is a Special Master in the 3M Combat Earplugs MDL, court appointed member of the fee panel in the Opiate MDL and Trustee of the DII Asbestos PI Trust. Herndon is affiliated with Lexitas of St. Louis, Missouri (formerly Alaris ADR) where he is available for arbitration and special master projects.