About Edwin V.
Edwin V. Butler began his academic path at the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a B.A. in Government and Economics in 1979. He went on to Saint Louis University School of Law and received his J.D. in 1982. Those early years combined legal study with a grounding in economic and tax concepts that would reappear in his later work.
Butler’s first professional role after law school was in the private sector. In 1982 he worked as a tax accountant and lawyer at Arthur Andersen. A year later he moved into public service as an assistant prosecuting lawyer in the St. Louis Office of the Circuit Attorney. That prosecutorial experience gave him courtroom exposure and an understanding of how cases unfold from investigation through trial.
In 1987 Butler opened The Butler Law Office. He practiced privately for many years and then took on a leadership role in 2006 as a managing member of Butler Mehan LLC. His career reflects shifts between public and private practice rather than a single steady track. In 2018 he returned to public defense as a special public defender for the Missouri State Public Defender. The next year he established Butler Law Group LLC, where he is listed as owner lawyer.
Throughout his career Butler has maintained bar memberships and admissions across state and federal lines. He is admitted to practice in Illinois and Missouri, and he is admitted to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. He has been a member of the Illinois Bar Association since 1984. Those credentials have supported work on matters that require both courtroom experience and technical familiarity with financial issues.
The mix of roles — tax accounting, prosecution, private practice and public defense — informs the kinds of matters Butler handles. He has handled cases that require courtroom trial skills and others that require understanding of tax and economic detail. Colleagues describe a practice shaped by decades of varied litigation and transactional work rather than a narrow specialization.
Today Butler practices through Butler Law Group LLC. He carries forward the blend of litigation and tax-related work that marked his earlier positions and maintains a practice addressing criminal defense and tax-related legal matters.
