Mo. Governor’s Official One of Nominees for Appeals Court Spot

A former top official in Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration is one of three finalists for a spot on the state appeals court.

An appellate nominating commission on Monday selected Rod Chapel Jr., Zel Fischer and Alok Ahuja as the three nominees to replace Judge Patricia Breckenridge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

Breckenridge was appointed in September by Blunt to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Chapel, 37, served as Blunt’s director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations until September, when the governor appointed Chapel to a six-year term on the Administrative Hearing Commission. The commission decides disputes between state agencies and businesses or individuals using a trial-type legal process.

Chapel also has served as director of the Department of Revenue’s Legal Services Division and previously was an attorney in private practice. He has homes in Jefferson City and Kansas City and received his law degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. He also has a master’s in law degree in taxation from Washington University in St. Louis.

Fischer, 44, of Tarkio, is a Republican who currently serves as an associate circuit judge in Atchison County. He originally is from Hamburg, Iowa, and received his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Ahuja, 43, of Lee’s Summit is a partner at Lathrop & Gage law firm in Kansas City. He originally is from Raipur, India, and received his law degree from Yale University in Connecticut. Ahuja also was a finalist this year to replace resigned Western District appellate judges Edwin Smith and Robert Ulrich. But both times, Blunt appointed someone else.