Morris B. Chapman
Morris B. Chapman (1919–February 18, 2007) was an American lawyer from Madison County, Illinois. He graduated from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1942. He helped develop trial rules that require parties to disclose the evidence before trial and mentored many prominent lawyers and judges in the Metro East region.
Chapman served as president of the Madison County Bar Association and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. He was a state committeeman for the American Association for Justice and a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates. In 1954, he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the youngest attorney to do so at the time.
He participated in civil rights activities in the 1960s and 1970s, volunteering with the ACLU in Mississippi, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago in 1966, and remaining a lifetime member of the NAACP.
Chapman practiced law for more than six decades, working on his last medical malpractice case just months before his death. He volunteered for the poor, was an amateur pilot, enjoyed collecting watches, flying airplanes, and raising horses.
He died at age 87 in Granite City, Illinois, on February 18, 2007, from prostate cancer. He was the father of Melissa Chapman, a judge on Illinois’s 5th District Appellate Court.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 22:34 (CET).