{"id":164893,"date":"2025-08-21T22:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/164893\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T22:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:23:11","slug":"fort-worths-oconnor-named-chief-judge-for-northern-district-of-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/164893\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth\u2019s O\u2019Connor named chief judge for Northern District of Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

District Judge Reed Charles O\u2019Connor 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Bobby Ahdieh, dean of the Texas A&M School of Law.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members of the legal community welcomed O\u2019Connor\u2019s new role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cReed O\u2019Connor\u2019s appointment as chief is a well-deserved honor for a respected and incredibly hard-working judge,\u201d said Dee Kelly Jr., a partner at Kelly Hart & Hallman. \u201cThe fact that Judge O\u2019Connor calls Fort Worth home is a proud moment for all of us in the Tarrant County bar.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Richard Roper, now a partner at Vartabedian Hester & Haynes and formerly U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said O\u2019Connor has demonstrated a strong work ethic during his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s well prepared, reads the briefs and is available and willing to work to get the job done,\u201d Roper said. \u201cThat work ethic is on display every time he\u2019s in the courtroom, and that\u2019s really a hallmark of the Fort Worth office.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor, 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.<\/p>\n

Before that, he served four years as a prosecutor with the Tarrant County district attorney\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor 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.<\/p>\n

Over his career, O\u2019Connor has ruled on hot-button political issues ranging from the Affordable Care Act to gun control and transgender rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor 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\u2019s position on several issues such as health care and transgender rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s handled complex cases with international repercussions, such as the criminal case<\/a> against Boeing Co. over 737 Max crashes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor, a native of Houston, earned a bachelor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019Connor and his wife, Tammy Herrin, have two grown daughters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: The Fort Worth Report\u2019s Texas legislative coverage is supported by Kelly Hart<\/a>.At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n

Republish This Story<\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/p>\n

Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"District Judge Reed Charles O\u2019Connor became the chief judge for the Northern District of Texas on Aug. 18,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,3228,358,11426,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-164893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-law","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-am","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115069099184058139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}