190th District Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod Nominated to 5th Circuit

190th District Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod Nominated to 5th Circuit

By John Council
Texas lawyer
Friday, March 30, 2007

On March 29, President George W. Bush nominated 190th District Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Elrod will fill a vacancy created when Judge Patrick Higginbotham took senior status last year.

Elrod, 40, has been on the state civil bench since 2002. She's a former associate with the Houston office of Baker Botts where she was a litigator handling complex litigation, including antitrust cases.

Elrod, a 1992 graduate of Harvard Law School, declines to comment about her nomination. But three Houston lawyers who have tried cases before her say she has earned a reputation as a fair and smart state district judge.

"I think the most disappointing factor about her getting nominated is losing her off the bench in Harris County," says Stephen Boutros, a Houston plaintiffs attorney.

"She often won't rule in my favor, but it doesn't matter," says Boutros of Stephen Boutros LTD. "I would rate her the top judge I've ever been in front of. She understands the law. She can get a grasp of the issues in a matter of moments as if it were her own case."

Boutros believes Elrod has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Higgonbotham - a seasoned and respected judge who was a moderating force on the 5th Circuit - a court known as one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the nation.

"She's going to be an absolute centrist," Boutros says. "She is intellectually honest and she's not an ideologue."

Jim Perdue Jr., a partner in the Perdue Law Firm who represents plaintiffs, says Elrod is a reassuring pick for the 5th Circuit, especially since some of the White House's nominees for the court have run into opposition. Most recently, 5th Circuit nominee Michael Wallace, a partner in Phelps Dunbar in Jackson, Miss., pulled down his nomination in December 2006 after an American Bar Association report labeled him "unqualified" because he "did not understand or care about issues central to the lives of the poor, minorities, the marginalized, the have-nots, and those who do not share his view of the world."

"In the context of the things that have come before, this is clearly a better appointee," Perdue says, who believes the U.S. Senate will confirm Elrod. "They're going to find that she's going to be well qualified."

In 2001, Elrod won Baker Botts' Thomas Gibbs Gee Award, a pro bono honor named after a former Baker Botts partner who served on the 5th Circuit, says Maria Boyce, a Baker Botts partner who heads the Houston office's litigation department.

Elrod previously served as chairwoman of the board of directors of Lone Star Legal Aid based in Houston, an organization that serves more than 7,200 low-income clients, Boyce says.

Notes Boyce: "She's an amazing person."