The State Bar of Texas’ Board of Directors has voted Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Lynne Liberato as the Bar’s appointee to the newly-established Texas Commission on Judicial Selection.
The Texas legislature enacted a law in 2019 creating the commission, which will study the state’s system of selecting judges through partisan elections. The commission will also consider the merits of alternative methods of selecting judges.
Liberato is the sole member of the 15-person commission to be appointed by the State Bar, which regulates the legal profession in Texas and is the second-largest state bar in the nation. Other appointees thus far are former Texas Supreme Court chief justices Wallace B. Jefferson and Thomas R. Phillips, who were appointed by the Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, respectively. The legislation creating the commission also specifies that the commission include four members appointed by the governor, four appointed by the lieutenant governor and four appointed by the speaker of the house.
“I am deeply honored that the Texas State Bar has entrusted me with this responsibility,” Liberato said. “I have had the good fortune to appear before trial and appellate courts statewide and to observe the judicial process up close, as a former staff attorney at the First Court of Appeals in Houston. I appreciate the profound role judges play in administering justice and relish the opportunity to help ensure that Texas uses the best method to select judges.”
A partner in Haynes and Boone’s Appellate Practice Group, Liberato has led teams in some of the most significant appeals and trials in Texas and has presented oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court. The Texas Bar Foundation selected her as the 2019 winner of the Gregory S. Coleman Outstanding Appellate Lawyer Award. She is a former president of the State Bar of Texas and was the first woman president of the Houston Bar Association.