J. Dale Wainwright (born June 19, 1961 in Mt. Juliet,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

) is a former associate justice of the

Texas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of ...

, now in private practice with Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Austin, Texas. Wainwright was initially elected to a six-year term, in November 2002, to replace Deborah Hankinson. In 2008, he was re-elected to a second term that would have ended in December 2014. On September 30, 2012, Wainwright officially resigned from the

after nearly a decade of service. He subsequently joined the Austin office of the law firm

Bracewell and Giuliani Bracewell LLP is an international law firm based in Houston, Texas, that began in 1945. The firm has approximately 350 lawyers, and has United States offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Hartford, San Antonio, Seattle, Dallas and Austin, a ...

. His successor on the court, effective December 3, 2012, was Jeffrey S. Boyd, a former chief of staff of then

Texas Governor The governor of Texas heads the state government of Texas. The governor is the leader of the executive and legislative branch of the state government and is the commander in chief of the Texas Military. The current governor is Greg Abbott, who ...

Rick Perry. Boyd was appointed by Perry to serve for the remainder of Wainwright's term.

Early education and career

Wainwright graduated summa cum laude with a major in economics from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, studied at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

as a Luard Scholar during his junior year, and received his J.D. from the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...

in 1988. In 1999 Wainwright was appointed by then Texas Governor

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

to the 334th District Court in Harris County, where he served until his election to the supreme court.

Elections

2002 election

Wainwright and Wallace B. Jefferson were the first African Americans to be elected to the Texas Supreme Court. Jefferson was initially appointed by Perry in 2001, and won his seat in 2002, in the same election in which Wainwright was elected to an open seat on the court. Like all justices on the state supreme court, Wainwright was a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

.Supreme Court Profile: Dale Wainwright, Texas Bar Journal
Retrieved May 17, 2009

2008 election

In 2008, Wainwright sought his first reelection to the court. His main opponent was Democratic lawyer Sam Houston. Wainwright was reelected to a new six-year term with 51 percent of the vote to Houston's 45 percent. Libertarian candidate David G. Smith received 3 percent.

Personal life

Wainwright and his wife, Debbie, have three sons, Jeremy, Phillip, and Joshua Wainwright.

References

External links

2008 Campaign SiteProfile of Justice Wainwright at the Texas Supreme Court website"New Texas Supreme Court Justice began aspirations in Mt. Juliet," ''The Tennessean,'' May 29, 2003.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wainwright, Dale 1961 births Living people People from Mount Juliet, Tennessee African-American judges Howard University alumni Lawyers from Austin, Texas Lawyers from Houston Texas Republicans Texas state court judges Justices of the Texas Supreme Court University of Chicago Law School alumni 21st-century American judges 21st-century American lawyers 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American lawyers