Leonidas "Leon" Jaworski was an American attorney and law professor who served as the second special prosecutor during the Watergate Scandal. He was appointed to that position on November 1,1973,soon after the Saturday Night Massacre of October 19–20,1973,which included the dismissal of his predecessor Archibald Cox.
Charles Hamilton Houston was an American lawyer. He was the dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP first special counsel. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School,Houston played a significant role in dismantling Jim Crow laws,especially attacking segregation in schools and racial housing covenants. He earned the title "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow".
Robert Christopher Bell is an American politician,attorney,and former journalist. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and South Texas College of Law. Bell served five years on the Houston City Council from 1997 to 2001,followed by one term in the United States House of Representatives from Texas's 25th Congressional District in Houston from 2003 to 2005.
South Texas College of Law Houston is a private law school in Houston,Texas. Founded in 1923,it is accredited by the American Bar Association. South Texas College of Law Houston is the oldest law school in the city of Houston. It was founded in 1923 when the YMCA made the decision to establish a law school with a focus on offering night classes for working professionals.
The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for civil matters in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court,the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,is the court of last resort in criminal matters.
Nathan Lincoln Hecht is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. A Republican from Dallas,Hecht was first elected to the Supreme Court in 1988 and was reelected to six-year terms in 1994,2000 and 2006. He secured his fifth six-year term on November 6,2012. He was appointed chief justice by Governor Rick Perry on September 10,2013,and was sworn into that position by retiring Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson on October 1,2013.
Tom DeLay,a Republican U.S. Representative from Texas from 1979–83,and from 1985–2006 and the House Majority Leader from 2003–05,was convicted in 2010 of money laundering and conspiracy charges related to illegal campaign finance activities aimed at helping Republican candidates for Texas state office in the 2002 elections. In 2013,a Texas Court of Appeals panel acquitted DeLay when it overturned his conviction. This decision was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 1,2014. DeLay had three years from that date,i.e. until October 1,2017,to file any lawsuits for wrongful action.
Donny Ray Willett is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was previously appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas on August 24,2005,when former Justice Priscilla Owen created a vacancy on that court by joining the Fifth Circuit.
J. Dale Wainwright is a former associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court,now in private practice with Greenberg Traurig,LLP in Austin,Texas.
David Hittner is a senior United States District Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He also has served by temporary assignment on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit,as well as the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the District of Arizona. His tenure as a federal jurist began in 1986,when he was nominated for the lifetime position by President Ronald Reagan and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Prior to his appointment to the federal bench in 1986,Hittner served from 1978 to 1986 as the elected judge of the 133rd Judicial District Court of Harris County,Texas,based in Houston.
Eva Martinez Guzman is an American attorney,politician,and jurist who served as a Republican member of the Texas Supreme Court from 2009 to 2021. Justice Guzman is a Shareholder at Chamberlain Hrdlicka in the Houston and San Antonio,Texas offices.
Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who is serving as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party,he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the eighth district and a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
Cathleen Cochran Herasimchuk,was a judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A resident of Austin,Texas,she was initially appointed to the court on September 28,2001 by Governor Rick Perry and elected by Texas voters in 2002 and 2008. She did not seek re-election to the bench in 2014 and was succeeded in her Place 9 seat by her fellow Republican,David Newell of Houston. She died on February 7,2021.
Jeffrey Scott Boyd is an American lawyer who has served as an associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court. He was appointed to Place 7 on the court by Governor Rick Perry in the fall of 2012 to fill the seat vacated by Justice Dale Wainwright,and he won a full six-year term on the court in the 2014 election.
John Phillip Devine is the Place 4 justice of the nine-member Supreme Court of Texas. A Republican,Devine defeated incumbent David M. Medina in a primary runoff election held on July 31,2012. Devine was then elected without a Democratic Party opponent in the general election on November 6,2012. His term began on January 1,2013.
Stephen Daily Susman was an American commercial plaintiffs attorney and founding and name partner of Susman Godfrey LLP. He won more than $2 billion in damages and settlements in just three cases,including a $1.1 billion settlement on behalf of Texas Instruments in Samsung Electronics v. Texas Instruments,and a $536 million jury verdict in El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. GHR Energy Corp.
Thomas M. Melsheimer is a trial lawyer and a partner at the international law firm of Winston &Strawn,where he also serves as managing partner of its Dallas office and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. His trial experience encompasses both civil and criminal litigation. On the civil side,he has tried to verdict cases involving patent infringement,trade secrets,insider trading,antitrust,breach of fiduciary duty,fraud,product liability,and False Claims Act (FCA) violations. On the criminal side,he has tried to verdict cases involving bank fraud,public corruption,copyright infringement,aggravated sexual assault,and kidnapping. His clients include a variety of high-net-worth individuals and notable corporations,including the Dallas Mavericks and owner Mark Cuban,Microsoft,Bank of America,and Texas Instruments. Melsheimer is the co-author of a best-selling book on trial advocacy,On the Jury Trial:Principles and Practices for Effective Advocacy
Georgina "Gina" Martinez Benavides is a justice at the Texas Thirteenth Court of Appeals based in Corpus Christi and Edinburg. She was first elected in 2006,and re-elected in 2012. She is a member of the Democratic Party and resides in McAllen,Texas.
On August 15,2014,Texas Governor Rick Perry was indicted by a Travis County grand jury,but has since been cleared on all charges. The first charge of the indictment was abuse of official capacity,a first-degree felony,for threatening to veto $7.5 million in funding for the Public Integrity Unit,a state public corruption prosecutors department. The second charge,which has since been ruled unconstitutional,was coercion of a public servant,a third-degree felony,for seeking the resignation of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg,a Democrat,after she was convicted of drunk driving and incarcerated. Lehmberg was a district attorney in Travis County,Texas,and the Travis County DA's office managed the Public Integrity Unit's operations. The veto was seen as retribution for Lehmberg not stepping down. Perry pleaded not guilty to both charges.
