District Judge Reed Charles O’Connor became the chief judge for the Northern District of Texas on Aug. 18, making him the first Fort Worth-based judge to hold that position since 1972.
“The fact that one of the Fort Worth judges has become the chief judge does reflect on the kind of importance attached to Fort Worth in the Northern District,” said Bobby Ahdieh, dean of the Texas A&M School of Law.
The chief judge is primarily responsible for the administration of the court, not for managing other judges or ruling on their cases, Ahdieh said. That includes assigning cases and managing workloads, much like a chief operating officer, he explained.
O’Connor is filling the role after U.S. District Judge David Godbey of Dallas, who served as chief for nearly three years, stepped down from that role as he is taking senior status. The term of a chief judge is usually seven years, Ahdieh said.
Texas is divided into four federal districts with the Northern District of Texas composed of seven divisions located in the north-central part of the state. The court is based in Dallas with divisions in Fort Worth, Amarillo, Abilene, Lubbock, San Angelo and Wichita Falls.
The role of chief judge for the district rotates depending on seniority and other factors, Ahdieh said, but it is significant that Fort Worth is now the administrative center of the court.
Members of the legal community welcomed O’Connor’s new role.
“Reed O’Connor’s appointment as chief is a well-deserved honor for a respected and incredibly hard-working judge,” said Dee Kelly Jr., a partner at Kelly Hart & Hallman. “The fact that Judge O’Connor calls Fort Worth home is a proud moment for all of us in the Tarrant County bar.”
Richard Roper, now a partner at Vartabedian Hester & Haynes and formerly U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said O’Connor has demonstrated a strong work ethic during his career.
“He’s well prepared, reads the briefs and is available and willing to work to get the job done,” Roper said. “That work ethic is on display every time he’s in the courtroom, and that’s really a hallmark of the Fort Worth office.”
O’Connor, 60, was nominated to the bench by then-President George W. Bush in 2007 after serving nine years as a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Texas.
Before that, he served four years as a prosecutor with the Tarrant County district attorney’s office.
O’Connor also has experience in Washington, D.C., twice being detailed to the U.S. Senate where he served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2003 and as chief counsel to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship in 2005, where he worked with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Over his career, O’Connor has ruled on hot-button political issues ranging from the Affordable Care Act to gun control and transgender rights.
O’Connor has been a favorite of the state of Texas as it filed or co-filed several lawsuits against the federal government that have ended up in his court. He has made several rulings that favored the state’s position on several issues such as health care and transgender rights.
He’s handled complex cases with international repercussions, such as the criminal case against Boeing Co. over 737 Max crashes.
O’Connor, a native of Houston, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston; his law degree from the South Texas College of Law in Houston; and was a civil litigator for five years at a Texas law firm before becoming a prosecutor.
He has been a member of the Committee on the Judicial Branch of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking body for the federal judiciary, since 2009. O’Connor and his wife, Tammy Herrin, have two grown daughters.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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