Pemberton Tops in State for Appeals Opinion Productivity

Pemberton’s Third Court of Appeals is Texas’ most productive court

AUSTIN – For the fiscal year ending August 31, 2006, Third Court of Appeals Justice Bob Pemberton ranked #1 statewide among Texas’ court of appeals judges in production of original appellate opinions on the merits. These results show that Justice Pemberton is the most productive appeals judge in Texas for original opinions and the Third Court of Appeals is the most productive of Texas’ 14 courts of appeals.

Justice Pemberton authored 133 original opinions on the merits, ranking him first among 98 full-time and visiting appellate judges statewide. During FY2004-05, his first full year of judicial service, Pemberton had authored 92 merits opinions, ranking him 21st among appellate justices statewide. Counting concurrences, dissents, and routine dismissals, Pemberton’s issued a total of 192 opinions in FY2005-06 (#5 in state), up from 177 opinions (# 10 in state) during the previous year.

Pemberton leads a strong performance by all of the Third Court of Appeals’ justices, who issued 1,035 total opinions in FY2005-06, for an average of 172.5 opinions for each of the six full-time judges — #1 among Texas’ fourteen courts of appeals. Pemberton and his five peers who served through the entire year each ranked in the top eleven statewide in both merits opinions and total opinions:

“I’m proud of our Third Court of Appeals team — and surprised and honored individually to achieve #1 statewide in original merits opinion production,” said Justice Pemberton. “This performance measure reflects how hard I work to be a fair, balanced, and productive judge who always strives to get it right under our laws and Constitution.”

Justice Pemberton joined the Third Court of Appeals (Place 6) in late 2003. Pemberton won election to an unexpired term in 2004 and seeks a full six-year term in the November 2006 election. His work ethic, temperament and judicial philosophy led to his being voted Best Qualified in every State Bar of Texas Judicial Poll since taking office - the only Republican candidate in history to win this distinction against a Democrat in a Third Court race.

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.

A Temple native and sixth-generation Texan, Justice Pemberton graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he made the Harvard Law Review; he graduated at the top of his undergraduate class at Baylor.

Justice Pemberton is married to attorney Becky Yates Pemberton. Bob and Becky are parents of Ella, who was born eight days before Bob’s 2004 election, and expect their second child, a son, this fall. For more, go to: www.bobpemberton.com.