Justice Bob Pemberton has served on the Third Court of Appeals since December 2003. After being appointed to fill the vacancy created by Lee Yeakel’s elevation to the federal bench, Pemberton won election to Yeakel’s unexpired term in 2004. He was subsequently re-elected to a full six-year term in 2006.
Justice Pemberton has authored approximately eight hundred appellate majority opinions on the merits. He has consistently ranked among the most productive of Texas’s appellate judges, twice leading all court of appeals judges statewide in production of majority opinions on the merits during a fiscal year.
Justice Pemberton has sat by special commission on the Supreme Court of Texas, and currently serves on the Supreme Court of Texas Rules Advisory Committee. He is also a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs.
Before taking the bench, Justice Pemberton practiced trial and appellate law for several years with Baker Botts and later Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; served as Deputy General Counsel to the Governor; was Rules Attorney to the Texas Supreme Court, where he played a pivotal role in the 1999 civil discovery rules reforms; clerked for Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips; taught advanced civil trial and appellate law at the University of Texas School of Law, and published numerous legal articles.
Justice Pemberton graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated at the top of his undergraduate class at Baylor.
Among other civic and charitable endeavors, Justice Pemberton serves on the board of directors of the Baylor Alumni Association. He has also served as a board member and volunteer for Big-Brothers-Big Sisters of Central Texas and on the Advisory Council to the ACC Center for Community-Based and Nonprofit Organizations. His leadership and service to the bar has included serving as president of the Austin Young Lawyers Association.
A native of Temple, Justice Pemberton’s family roots run six generations deep in the 24-county district he serves. He is also a second-generation judge: father Stan served on the Bell County district bench for many years, while mother Jo Ann, a former Temple Educator of the Year, taught Temple fifth-graders.
Justice Pemberton is married to Becky Yates Pemberton, Senior Corporate Counsel at Dell and an alumna of Leadership Texas. Becky and Bob are the parents of three children of whom they are very proud: Ella, born in 2004; Harris, born in 2006; and Cole, who lived 74 heroic days in 2009.