HIGGINBOTHAM, PATRICK ERROL (1938~) Patrick Errol Higginbotham, federal judge, was born on December 16, 1938, in McCalla, Alabama, and attended public schools in Alabama. He attended the University of Texas at Arlington and Austin and received his B.A. and LL.B. degrees from the University of Alabama. He attended law school with the aid of an athletic scholarship, playing varsity tennis and serving as the team captain. At the same time he served as note editor of the Law Review, an officer of the student body, a member of the national moot court team and was elected to membership in the Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society and Omicron Delta Kappa. Following graduation from law school, he served for three years as a member of the JAG-Airforce.

He then practiced with the Dallas law firm of Coke and Coke, where his work was confined to trials and appeals, with one stint as a special prosecutor. In 1975, he was appointed to the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, by President Ford. He was then the youngest sitting federal judge in the United States. In 1982, he was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, by President Reagan and now serves on that court.

Judge Higginbotham served for many years as a faculty member of the Federal Judicial Center; he is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University (S.M.U.) Law School, where he has taught courses in federal practice and constitutional law, served as a member of the Board of Visitors, search committee for endowed chairs, and advisor to the Southwestern Law Journal; he has served as a member of the Board of Visitors of the law school of the University of Chicago. He was in residence at the University of Alabama School of Law the fall semesters of 1995, 1997, and 1999, where he taught Federal Jurisdiction as the John Sparkman jurist in residence; and in residence in Austin, Texas, in the fall of 1998, where in addition to his judicial duties, he taught Constitutional Law at the University of Texas School of Law. He also taught Federal Jurisdiction at Texas Tech University School of Law in the spring of 1999. He has, as well, delivered lectures at numerous universities including the Universities of Alabama, Chicago, Texas, Texas Tech, Columbia, Duke, and Penn, as well as Case Western, Northwestern, Utah, Loyola, Hofstra, the National Science Foundation, The American College of Trial Lawyers, and has taught at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He has also testified before various Congressional committees.

He is a member of the Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society, the Farrah Law Society, the Order of the Coif (Texas Tech and S.M.U.), the American Law Institute (member of the Advisory Committee of the Complex Litigation Project), and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; he has served as a Director of the Dallas Bar Association, a Director of the Dallas Bar Foundation, a judicial member of the council of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, a director of the American Judicature Society and is a Research Fellow, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Center for American and International Law (formerly Southwestern Legal Foundation), and member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States. He served for two years as the President of the Dallas Inn of Court and served as President of the American Inns of Court (1996 - 2000). He is also a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas. He was a conferee at both the American Assembly on Law and the American Future at Stanford University in 1975, and the Pound Conference at St. Paul, Minnesota in 1976. He has been active in the American Bar Association, serving for eight years as a member of the Board of Editors of the American Bar Journal. He is the past-Chairman of the Appellate Judges Conference of the Judicial Administration Division. In 1992, as part of an American delegation, he worked with leaders of the Albanian government in their effort to draft a Constitution. In May 1988, he represented the American Judiciary at a conference with the Supreme Court of Brazil and representatives of Brazil's Constituent Assembly, lecturing on judicial interpretations of constitutional text. He has taught Constitutional Law in the LSU program at Aix-en-Province, France, on two occasions. He has served on the newly created council of the Federal and State Judiciary and is former Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Institute for Civil Justice, RAND. He is a member of the Committee on Ethics 2000, ABA. He is the author of numerous articles and book reviews. He was an advisor to the National Center for State Courts on its study of habeas corpus.

In 1978, he was selected as the Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Texas at Arlington and in 1986, received the Dan Meador Award for service to the University of Alabama School of Law. He was selected by "Next" Magazine as one of the nation's 100 most powerful persons for the 80s (April 1981 issue). He also holds the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws awarded by Southern Methodist University in 1989. He received the Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award from the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1997. He received The A. Sherman Christensen Award from The American Inns of Court in 2002.

Judge Higginbotham is married to the former Elizabeth Anne O'Neal of Atlanta, Georgia. They are the parents of Anne Elizabeth Howard, a graduate of Baylor University, and Patricia Lynn, a graduate of North Texas State University. He is an active lay member and former member of the Administrative Board of the Highland Park United Methodist Church of Highland Park, Texas.

Information provided by Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham.