Morris W. “Moe” Sandstead joined the Judicial Arbiter Group, Inc. in July 2010 after nearly twenty-seven year career on the Colorado District Court Bench. Sandstead was appointed to the 20th Judicial District in January 1983 and served with distinction until his retirement in October 2009. During his years on the Boulder District Court bench he served in a rotating general assignment hearing civil, domestic, criminal, juvenile and probate matters.

Judge Sandstead received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in 1964 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1967. Moe clerked for the Hon. Alfred A. Arraj, Chief Judge of the United States District Court of Colorado. He was admitted to the U.S. Federal District Court of Colorado and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Subsequently, he was admitted to the United States Supreme Court in 1974.

In October 1968 he began the practice of law with the firm of Williams, Trine and Greenstein, PC in Boulder. He later became a partner in the firm which specialized in litigation, civil, criminal and domestic. In his last seven years at the firm he was involved only in product’s liability, professional malpractice and complex business matters. In 1989 while on the bench he commenced the management of more than 360 asbestos cases. In the following years Moe tried more than 25 asbestos cases to verdict. The thirty cases that remained on his docket at his retirement were all on administrative closure. He was a founding member of the Asbestos Litigation Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices of the United States. This committee of twelve judges studies the management of mass tort litigation and made recommendations to the jurisdictions where such cases were filed. Sandstead has made presentations to conferences around the country concerning management of this litigation. The original committee of the Conference of the Chief Justices of the States eventually evolved in the Mass Tort Litigation Committee of today.

For seven years, Judge Sandstead sat on the Multi-District Litigation Panel of the Colorado Supreme Court. He was also a member of the Judicial Ethics Advisory Board of the Colorado Supreme Court.