Former United States Attorney General
William P. Barr was born on May 23, 1950 in New York City. Mr. Barr received his A.B. in government from Columbia University in 1971 and his M.A. in government and Chinese studies in 1973. From 1973 to 1977, he served in the Central Intelligence Agency before receiving his J.D. with highest honors from George Washington University Law School in 1977.
In 1978, Mr. Barr served as a law clerk under Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Following his clerkship, Mr. Barr joined the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge as an associate. He left the firm to work in the White House under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1983 on the domestic policy staff, then returned to the law firm and became a partner in 1985.
Under President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Barr served as the Deputy Attorney General from 1990 to 1991; the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1989 to 1990; and the 77th Attorney General of the United States from 1991 to 1993. While serving at the Department, Mr. Barr helped create programs and strategies to reduce violent crime and was responsible for establishing new enforcement policies in a number of areas including financial institutions, civil rights, and antitrust merger guidelines. Mr. Barr also led the Department’s response to the Savings & Loan crisis; oversaw the investigation of the Pan Am 103 bombing; directed the successful response to the Talladega prison uprising and hostage taking; and coordinated counter-terrorism activities during the First Gulf War.
From 1994 to 2000, Mr. Barr served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for GTE Corporation. Mr. Barr then served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Verizon from 2000 to 2008. At both GTE and Verizon, Mr. Barr led the legal, regulatory, and government affairs activities of the companies.
After retiring from Verizon in 2008, Mr. Barr advised major corporations on government enforcement matters, as well as regulatory litigation. Mr. Barr served as Of Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in 2009 and rejoined the firm in 2017.
President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Mr. Barr on December 7, 2018, and he was confirmed as the 85th Attorney General of the United States by the U.S. Senate on February 14, 2019. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. Mr. Barr joins John Crittenden (1841 and 1850-1853) as one of only two people in U.S. history to serve twice as Attorney General.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
United States Attorney, Northern District of Texas
Ryan R. Raybould was named the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas on November 17, 2025, by United States Attorney General Pam Bondi.
His appointment followed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Mr. Raybould on October 21, 2025, to serve a four-year term in this role. The President’s nomination of Mr. Raybould is currently pending United States Senate confirmation.
Mr. Raybould is now the chief federal law enforcement officer for the district, which covers 96,000 square miles and a population of approximately eight million, including those in Dallas, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, San Angelo, Wichita Falls, and surrounding areas. Mr. Raybould oversees roughly 220 attorneys and staff across five division offices and is responsible for all federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving the United States government in the region.
Before his tenure as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Mr. Raybould was a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis in the Government, Regulatory, and Internal Investigations Practice Group.
Mr. Raybould previously served as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice for almost seven years, including as Deputy Chief of the White Collar and Public Corruption Unit in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Raybould investigated and tried cases involving public corruption, tax fraud, securities fraud, cybercrime, national security, violent crime, money laundering and other white-collar crimes.
Mr. Raybould also served as Chief Counsel to former Assistant Majority Leader and U.S. Senator John Cornyn. As Chief Counsel to Senator Cornyn, Mr. Raybould helped draft and negotiate numerous pieces of legislation that became law on national security, government accountability and drug diversion control. Mr. Raybould also advised Sen. Cornyn’s work on the Judiciary Committee and the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
After receiving his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School, Mr. Raybould clerked for Chief United States District Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas. Mr. Raybould is a graduate of Yale University.
Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
Hon. Charles Eskridge, Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and arrived in Houston, Texas, at the age of 11 with his parents in 1974.
Judge Eskridge received a B.S. from Trinity University and a J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law. He served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Charles Clark of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, as a law clerk to Justice Byron White of the Supreme Court of the United States, and as a special assistant to the Hon. Howard Holtzmann of the Iran/U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague.
From 1994 to 2019, Judge Eskridge was in private practice in Houston, Texas, litigating complex commercial disputes. He teaches Origins of the Federal Constitution at the University of Houston Law Center and has served as the Distinguished Visiting Practitioner of Law at the Pepperdine University School of Law.
President Donald J. Trump nominated him to the federal bench on May 3, 2019. Following confirmation by the Senate, Judge Eskridge took his seat on October 22, 2019.
Clinical Professor, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
John Greil co-teaches the Law and Religion Clinic, where he supervises student-led representations of clients in need of litigation, transaction, and consulting services. He is an active trial-level and appellate litigator in state and federal court and regularly supports clients in the United States Supreme Court. An expert on law and religion, Professor Greil also teaches a seminar titled Understanding Conservative Legal Thought. Before joining the faculty, he practiced at Vinson & Elkins LLP and clerked on the federal district and court of appeals.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
District Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Judge Brantley Starr was appointed to United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in August 2019. Before his appointment, Judge Starr was the Deputy First Assistant Attorney General of Texas. Prior to that appointment, he served as Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel. From 2011 to 2015, Judge Starr served as career staff attorney to Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. From 2008 to 2011, he practiced at King & Spalding, LLP. He served in the Office of the Solicitor General from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that, Judge Starr clerked for then-Justice Don Willett on the Texas Supreme Court after serving at the Office of the Attorney General. Judge Starr received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law and his bachelor of arts degree from Abilene Christian University in 2001. Judge Starr has taught the Origins of the Constitution Class at the University of Texas law, Texas A&M law, and SMU law.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Erin Nealy Cox, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, is a trial lawyer who represents corporations, boards of directors, and executives involved in complex multi-jurisdictional disputes and high-stakes investigations. As a partner in the Firm’s Dallas and Washington, D.C., offices, she is a member of the Firm’s Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group.
Erin has a broad practice focused on matters arising from alleged violations of state and federal laws, including fraud, cybersecurity, public corruption, national security, workplace compliance, and issues involving board governance. She has successfully tried numerous cases in federal courts throughout her two and a half decades in public service and private practice.
Erin has deep experience in government service having served at the highest levels of the Department of Justice as United States Attorney, and before that as an Assistant United States Attorney. As the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Erin led an office of 250 employees responsible for prosecuting wide-ranging and complex federal cases, including financial, securities, health care, government contracting and program fraud, as well as Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), money laundering, public corruption, computer crime, and opioid-related matters. She successfully quarterbacked the Northern District of Texas’ most significant investigations, and during her tenure, the office prosecuted more cases and more defendants than any other non-border district in the nation. As U.S. Attorney, she was recognized nationally for her work in developing strategic responses to benefit the eight million residents of the North District of Texas. She was also recognized nationally and locally for her efforts to combat domestic violence through gun control initiatives and her work to eradicate human trafficking through the efforts of the North Texas Trafficking Task Force.
While serving as U.S. Attorney, she also served as Chairperson of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), a body of 15 U.S. Attorneys selected by the Attorney General to advise on national priorities, including policy and operational issues. Erin also led the AGAC task force on domestic violence and firearms crimes.
Prior to her appointment as U.S. Attorney in 2017, she served briefly as a senior advisor at McKinsey & Co., in the consulting firm’s cybersecurity and risk practice. Before that, Erin was executive managing director at Stroz Friedberg, a cybersecurity and investigations consulting firm, ultimately leading the firm’s global incident response business. During her prosecutorial career, Erin served as Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy in Washington, D.C. She also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Texas, where she prosecuted white collar, cyber, and violent crimes for almost a decade.
Chief, Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas
Chief Policy Counsel, Council on Criminal Justice and Senior Advisor, Right on Crime
Marc A. Levin is the Chief Policy Counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice (counciloncj.org) and Senior Advisor for Right on Crime.
An attorney and accomplished author on legal and public policy issues, Marc began the Foundation’s criminal justice program in 2005. This work contributed to nationally praised policy changes that have been followed by dramatic declines in crime and incarceration in Texas. Building on this success, in 2010, Levin developed the concept for the Right on Crime initiative, a TPPF project in partnership with Prison Fellowship and the American Conservative Union Foundation. Right on Crime has become the national clearinghouse for conservative criminal justice reforms and has contributed to the adoption of policies in dozens of states that fight crime, support victims, and protect taxpayers.
In 2014, Levin was named one of the “Politico 50” in the magazine’s annual “list of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction.”
Marc has testified on criminal justice policy on four occasions before Congress and has testified before legislatures in states including Texas, Nevada, Kansas, Wisconsin, and California. He also has met personally with leaders such as U.S. Presidents, Speakers of the House, and the Justice Commtitee of the United Kingdom Parliament to share his ideas on criminal justice reform. In 2007, he was honored in a resolution unanimously passed by the Texas House of Representatives that stated, “Mr. Levin’s intellect is unparalleled and his research is impeccable.”
Since 2005, Marc has published dozens of policy papers on topics such as sentencing, probation, parole, reentry, and overcriminalization which are available on the TPPF website. Levin’s articles on law and public policy have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Texas Review of Law & Politics, National Law Journal, New York Daily News, Jerusalem Post, Toronto Star, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Charlotte Observer, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express-News and Reason Magazine.
In 1999, Marc graduated with honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government. In 2002, Marc received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. Marc was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow in 1996. He served as a law clerk to Judge Will Garwood on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Staff Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court.
Vice President, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
John G. Malcolm oversees Advancing American Freedom’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as Vice President of the organization’s Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. Malcolm brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining Advancing American Freedom in 2025, Malcolm was the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and the Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association.
Malcolm served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a founding partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.
From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work in connection with the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, Malcolm began his career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, and as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (new Eversheds Sutherland).
Malcolm, who resides in Washington, D.C., serves on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera and is a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Wes Hendrix is a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in January 2019 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2019. He presides over federal civil and criminal cases in the Northern District’s Lubbock, Abilene, and San Angelo Divisions. He is a member of the Fifth Circuit’s Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions Committee and the Northern District of Texas’s Local Rules Committee. He is an adjunct professor at Texas Tech University School of Law.
Prior to his confirmation, Judge Hendrix served as the Appellate Chief for the Northern District of Texas’s United States Attorney’s Office. He served as Chair of the Department of Justice’s Appellate Chiefs Working Group and as an ex officio member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. He regularly coordinated with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division Appellate Section and the Office of the Solicitor General regarding cases appealed to and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he represented the United States at trial and on appeal. He helped prosecute Hosam Smadi, who was convicted of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in a downtown Dallas skyscraper. He also argued over 25 appeals at the Fifth and Seventh Circuits—including two en banc arguments—and served as sole counsel in over 350 appeals. He regularly taught courses at the Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center.
Prior to his work as a prosecutor, Judge Hendrix was an associate at the Dallas office of Baker Botts L.L.P., where he focused on complex commercial, oil-and-gas, and intellectual-property litigation. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Judge Hendrix received his law degree from the University of Texas, where he served on the Texas Law Review and graduated with high honors and as a Chancellor-at-Large. He received his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Chicago.
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Erin Nealy Cox, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, is a trial lawyer who represents corporations, boards of directors, and executives involved in complex multi-jurisdictional disputes and high-stakes investigations. As a partner in the Firm’s Dallas and Washington, D.C., offices, she is a member of the Firm’s Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group.
Erin has a broad practice focused on matters arising from alleged violations of state and federal laws, including fraud, cybersecurity, public corruption, national security, workplace compliance, and issues involving board governance. She has successfully tried numerous cases in federal courts throughout her two and a half decades in public service and private practice.
Erin has deep experience in government service having served at the highest levels of the Department of Justice as United States Attorney, and before that as an Assistant United States Attorney. As the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Erin led an office of 250 employees responsible for prosecuting wide-ranging and complex federal cases, including financial, securities, health care, government contracting and program fraud, as well as Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), money laundering, public corruption, computer crime, and opioid-related matters. She successfully quarterbacked the Northern District of Texas’ most significant investigations, and during her tenure, the office prosecuted more cases and more defendants than any other non-border district in the nation. As U.S. Attorney, she was recognized nationally for her work in developing strategic responses to benefit the eight million residents of the North District of Texas. She was also recognized nationally and locally for her efforts to combat domestic violence through gun control initiatives and her work to eradicate human trafficking through the efforts of the North Texas Trafficking Task Force.
While serving as U.S. Attorney, she also served as Chairperson of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), a body of 15 U.S. Attorneys selected by the Attorney General to advise on national priorities, including policy and operational issues. Erin also led the AGAC task force on domestic violence and firearms crimes.
Prior to her appointment as U.S. Attorney in 2017, she served briefly as a senior advisor at McKinsey & Co., in the consulting firm’s cybersecurity and risk practice. Before that, Erin was executive managing director at Stroz Friedberg, a cybersecurity and investigations consulting firm, ultimately leading the firm’s global incident response business. During her prosecutorial career, Erin served as Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy in Washington, D.C. She also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Texas, where she prosecuted white collar, cyber, and violent crimes for almost a decade.
Chief, Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas
Chief Policy Counsel, Council on Criminal Justice and Senior Advisor, Right on Crime
Marc A. Levin is the Chief Policy Counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice (counciloncj.org) and Senior Advisor for Right on Crime.
An attorney and accomplished author on legal and public policy issues, Marc began the Foundation’s criminal justice program in 2005. This work contributed to nationally praised policy changes that have been followed by dramatic declines in crime and incarceration in Texas. Building on this success, in 2010, Levin developed the concept for the Right on Crime initiative, a TPPF project in partnership with Prison Fellowship and the American Conservative Union Foundation. Right on Crime has become the national clearinghouse for conservative criminal justice reforms and has contributed to the adoption of policies in dozens of states that fight crime, support victims, and protect taxpayers.
In 2014, Levin was named one of the “Politico 50” in the magazine’s annual “list of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction.”
Marc has testified on criminal justice policy on four occasions before Congress and has testified before legislatures in states including Texas, Nevada, Kansas, Wisconsin, and California. He also has met personally with leaders such as U.S. Presidents, Speakers of the House, and the Justice Commtitee of the United Kingdom Parliament to share his ideas on criminal justice reform. In 2007, he was honored in a resolution unanimously passed by the Texas House of Representatives that stated, “Mr. Levin’s intellect is unparalleled and his research is impeccable.”
Since 2005, Marc has published dozens of policy papers on topics such as sentencing, probation, parole, reentry, and overcriminalization which are available on the TPPF website. Levin’s articles on law and public policy have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Texas Review of Law & Politics, National Law Journal, New York Daily News, Jerusalem Post, Toronto Star, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Charlotte Observer, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express-News and Reason Magazine.
In 1999, Marc graduated with honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government. In 2002, Marc received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. Marc was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow in 1996. He served as a law clerk to Judge Will Garwood on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Staff Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court.
Vice President, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
John G. Malcolm oversees Advancing American Freedom’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as Vice President of the organization’s Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. Malcolm brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining Advancing American Freedom in 2025, Malcolm was the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and the Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association.
Malcolm served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a founding partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.
From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work in connection with the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, Malcolm began his career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, and as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (new Eversheds Sutherland).
Malcolm, who resides in Washington, D.C., serves on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera and is a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Reed Charles O'Connor is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He joined the court in 2007 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
A native of Houston, Texas, O'Connor graduated from the University of Houston with his bachelor's degree in 1986 and from South Texas College of Law with his J.D. in 1989.
Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Wes Hendrix is a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in January 2019 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2019. He presides over federal civil and criminal cases in the Northern District’s Lubbock, Abilene, and San Angelo Divisions. He is a member of the Fifth Circuit’s Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions Committee and the Northern District of Texas’s Local Rules Committee. He is an adjunct professor at Texas Tech University School of Law.
Prior to his confirmation, Judge Hendrix served as the Appellate Chief for the Northern District of Texas’s United States Attorney’s Office. He served as Chair of the Department of Justice’s Appellate Chiefs Working Group and as an ex officio member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. He regularly coordinated with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division Appellate Section and the Office of the Solicitor General regarding cases appealed to and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he represented the United States at trial and on appeal. He helped prosecute Hosam Smadi, who was convicted of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in a downtown Dallas skyscraper. He also argued over 25 appeals at the Fifth and Seventh Circuits—including two en banc arguments—and served as sole counsel in over 350 appeals. He regularly taught courses at the Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center.
Prior to his work as a prosecutor, Judge Hendrix was an associate at the Dallas office of Baker Botts L.L.P., where he focused on complex commercial, oil-and-gas, and intellectual-property litigation. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Judge Hendrix received his law degree from the University of Texas, where he served on the Texas Law Review and graduated with high honors and as a Chancellor-at-Large. He received his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Chicago.
Attorney General Bill Barr Fireside Chat with Chief Judge O'Connor
Fort Worth Lawyer Chapter
Fort Worth, TXMeet NDTX’s New U.S. Attorney: A Conversation with Ryan Raybould
Dallas Lawyer Chapter
Dallas, TXStudent Luncheon Panel
2025 Texas Chapters Conference
2025 Freedom of Thought Conference
New Questions of Liberty and Power in Historical Context
Washington, DCWelcome Remarks
2024 Texas Chapters Conference
Fort Worth, TXTopics
35 Naval Special Warfare Soldiers Obtain Preliminary Injunction Against Vaccine Mandate Under the Free Exercise Clause and Religious Freedom Restoration Act
On January 3, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas preliminarily enjoined Navy...
Cocktail Reception
Fort Worth Lawyers Chapter & Texas A&M University Law Students Chapter
Fort Worth , TXSmall Dinner with Judge Reed O'Connor
DC Young Lawyers Chapter
Washington, DCCriminal Justice Review: Trump, Sessions, and the States
Erin Nealy Cox, Stephen Patrick Fahey, Marc Levin, John G. Malcolm, Reed O'Connor, James Wesley Hendrix
On September 7-8, 2018, the Federalist Society's Fort Worth Lawyers Chapter hosted the fourth annual...
Criminal Justice Review: Trump, Sessions, and the States
Erin Nealy Cox, Stephen Patrick Fahey, Marc Levin, John G. Malcolm, Reed O'Connor, James Wesley Hendrix
On September 7-8, 2018, the Federalist Society's Fort Worth Lawyers Chapter hosted the fourth annual...