The morning brings us news on several judges with local ties who are entering new phases of their lives.
First, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein, Jr. announced yesterday that he would be taking senior status on December 31. Although he will continue to hear cases, Judge Werlein’s election to take senior status opens up a vacancy on the local District Court bench. As readers of this blog know, Judge Werlein has been in the news over the past year for his handling of the Enron-related Nigerian Barge trial.
Meanwhile, former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips, who resigned in September, 2004 to become a law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, announced yesterday that he would be joining the Houston-based firm of Baker & Botts, LLP in September, 2005 as an appellate specialist in the firm’s Austin office. Mr. Phillips previously practiced trial law in the Houston office of Baker Botts from 1975 until 1981 before becoming a Harris County District Judge and eventually a Texas Supreme Court Justice.
Finally, longtime State District Family Court Judge Linda Motheral announced that she is stepping down from the bench to continue her recovery from temporal lobe epilepsy, an affliction that forced her to take a leave of absence from the bench last year. Judge Motheral Motheral was appointed to the family law bench in 1993 and won re-election twice.