Elton Joe Kendall (born 1954) is a former

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (in case citations, N.D. Tex.) is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in D ...

Education and career

Born in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, Kendall was a

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

in the

Dallas Police Department The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas. Organization The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hir ...

from 1972 to 1978. He received a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

from

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

in 1977 and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from Baylor University School of Law in 1980. He was an assistant

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

Dallas County Dallas County may refer to: Places in the USA: * Dallas County, Alabama, founded in 1818, the first county in the United States by that name * Dallas County, Arkansas * Dallas County, Iowa * Dallas County, Missouri * Dallas County, Texas, the nint ...

, Texas from 1980 to 1982, thereafter entering private practice in Dallas until 1986.

Judicial career

Kendall was a judge on the 195th Texas State District Court from 1987 to 1992. On March 20, 1992, Kendall was nominated by President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

to a new seat on the

created by 104 Stat. 5089. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on May 12, 1992, and received his commission on May 15, 1992. In 1999, he was also appointed by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to be a Commissioner of the

United States Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal judiciary of the United States, judicial branch of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal go ...

. Kendall resigned from the bench, on January 22, 2002, and from the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2003.

Other service

During Kendall's public service, he was editor of ''In Camera'', the national newsletter of the

Federal Judges Association Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

, where he was also a member of the Board of Directors. As a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Kendall worked on many important sentencing issues including guidelines dealing with white collar fraud cases, penalties in drug and immigration cases, internet fraud and pornography guidelines, as well as corporate governance and compliance issues under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Kendall taught in numerous programs presented by the

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of respo ...

(the entity that teaches federal judges) in Washington, D.C. beginning in the mid-1990s. He has taught the Federal Sentencing Guidelines to new federal judges at Federal Judicial Center orientation programs and docket management to experienced federal judges from around the country. Kendall has also taught conference workshops for the federal judges of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, federal trial and appellate prosecutors from throughout the country at their training center in South Carolina, lawyers of the Federal Bar Association and United States Probation Officers nationwide. Kendall has also been a faculty member of the Texas Center for the Judiciary, the educational entity that teaches Texas State Judges.

Post-judicial career

Following his resignation from the bench, Kendall managed the Dallas office of Provost Umphrey. The law firm gained national recognition for its lead against tobacco companies for the State of Texas, producing a $17.3 billion settlement. As of 2017, Kendall is managing partner of Kendall Law Group, LLP. His practice focuses on complex civil and criminal litigation.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Elton Joe 1954 births Living people Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas Southern Methodist University alumni Texas state court judges United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush 20th-century American judges Members of the United States Sentencing Commission Baylor Law School alumni