JudicialProfiles
by Perry J. Cockerell
T
he Judicial Profiles section of the Bar Bulletin usually profiles a new or retiring Tarrant County judicial officials. This month we decided it would be interesting to profile several of the former judicial officials to find out about their life after they left the bench. There were so many to choose from that this article could not include all former officials. This is a selection from the federal, state and appellate bench.
Judge Ken Curry
J
udge Curry was born and raised in Fort Worth. He spent his early years in west Fort Worth and Springtown. His father worked at Consolidated (now Lockheed) Aircraft, having transferred from San Diego to Fort Worth when the bomber plant was opened in 1942. His mother was a stay at home mom until her kids were out of high school and she went to work as a bookkeeper. He grew up with one sister and two brothers. When he was in the ninth grade, his family moved to east Fort Worth where he graduated in 1969 from Eastern Hills High School. He received his B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1974 and his law degree from the University of Houston Law School in 1976. After law school, Curry returned to Fort Worth and took a position with a solo practitioner. After a year he went in-house with General Dynamics in Fort Worth for a year. He missed the opportunity to work with his father at General Dynamics as he retired in 1976. In 1979 he set up his own law office and practiced law for the next 13 years mostly in civil trial law. During his career, he had offices in Fort Worth in the stockyards area and on River Run Drive. When his two children were young, he and his wife Gloria moved to Colleyville and he moved his office to Hurst. In 1992, he successfully ran for the 153rd District Court. He held the bench for the next 20 years, facing no opponent during those years. Judge Curry enjoyed jury trials and interacting with attorneys in the cases. “The thing I miss as a judge are the jury trials and lawyers.” After leaving the bench in 2012, he took a year off to spend time with his family and to volunteer with community organizations. He has two grown children and two grandchildren. His family often spends time in Colorado, where they have a cabin. Judge Curry was raised a Master Mason in 1978 in Handley Masonic Lodge. He is on the Board of the Texas
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Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas. “The Scottish Rite Hospital helps those children with no hope. Its philosophy is to promote what is right in accordance with the Masonic philosophy of doing what is right to be a better person.” He still sits as a visiting judge in Tarrant, Johnson and Denton counties and handles some mediations. He does not intend to return to the practice of law and sees it as being a conflict with his position as a visiting judge. Judge Curry’s advice to attorneys is “be honest and credible. Be forthright. If you are not honest with the judge then your credibility will suffer. Toss out the bad stuff and tell the judge what the problems are.”
Justice David Farris
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ustice David Farris was elected to the Second Court of Appeals in 1986 to replace retired Justice Clyde Ashworth, leaving office at the end of 1994, following the election that saw Tarrant County complete the change from a Democratic county to a Republican county. From January 1995 through August 2003, Justice Farris served as a visiting justice on seven courts of appeals, including the Second Court in Fort Worth, and as a visiting trial judge in north-central and northeast Texas. Farris and his wife Joy own a country place in Cass County Texas, adjoining Arkansas and Louisiana; thus, east Texas “road” commissioners applauded his appointment as a visiting trial judge in their counties because they were not required to reimburse Farris for hotel expenses. In late 1999, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips assigned Farris and one other former justice to the Fifth Court of Appeals to assist that court in addressing a tremendous backlog of appeals. From that time until September 2003 Farris served almost exclusively on the fifth court. The campaign to reduce the backlog was successful. By 2003, lawyers appealing cases to the Dallas court were scheduled for oral argument within a few weeks of final briefing, and opinions were often handed down within a