Judge Bios

Born in 1936 in Memphis, Tennessee, Mr. Bowers was reared in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1957, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lincoln University, in Jefferson City, Missouri. Following a two-year tour of active duty as an Army artillery officer, he enrolled in Georgetown Law Center where, in 1962, he received a Bachelor of Laws degree and, in 1963, a Master of Laws degree. The latter degree was earned as a participant in the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship program.

Upon completion of the Prettyman program, Mr. Bowers was employed as a trial attorney at the U.S. Dept. of Justice, in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, Criminal Division. In May, 1964, he entered private practice, as an associate of now Superior Court Judge Carlisle E. Pratt, becoming a partner two years later. In 1967, now Chief Judge Theodore R. Newman, Jr., of the D.C. Court of Appeals, joined the firm as a partner and the firm became known as Pratt, Bowers and Newman. Since 1975, Mr. Bowers has been a solo practitioner. He is also presently an adjunct professor of Trial

Advocacy at Howard Law School, and formerly taught the same subject as an adjunct professor at Antioch School of Law.

Mr. Bowers has an extensive record of professional and community service. He was a member of the Judicial Council Committee on Bail Reform, a panelist at the Eighth Annual Criminal Practice Institute and is a former Chairman of the D.C. Bar Assn. District Court Committee. In addition, he has served as co-chairman of the Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Legal Service Program, a a member of the Board of Trustees of Public Defender Service, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Legal Aid Society, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Capital Area, American Civil Liberties Union.

Mr. Bowers is married to Florence Shyne Bowers, a molecular biologist in cancer research at Huntington Research Center, where she is Head, Dept. of Immunology. They have two children, Shellie, Jr., age 16 and David, age 9.