Priscilla R. Owen Biography

Priscilla R. Owen Biography

Priscilla Richman Owen is currently a Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas. Prior to her election to that court in 1994, she was a partner in the Houston office of Andrews & Kurth L.L.P. where she practiced commercial litigation for seventeen years. She received a bachelor of arts degree, cum laude, from Baylor University, and graduated in the top of her class from Baylor Law School in 1977, receiving a juris doctor, cum laude. She was a member of the Baylor law review.

In private practice, Owen handled a broad range of civil matters at the trial and appellate levels. She was admitted to practice before various state and federal trial courts, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Eight, and Eleventh Circuits. She is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Judicature Society, the American Bar Association, and a Fellow of the American and Houston Bar Foundations.

Justice Owen served as the liaison to the Supreme Court of Texas’ Court-Annexed Mediation Task Force and to statewide committees regarding legal services to the poor and pro bono legal services. She was part of a committee that successfully encouraged the Texas Legislature to enact legislation that has resulted in millions of dollars per year in additional funds for providers of legal services to the poor. Justice Owen also serves as a member of the board of the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Institute and is on the boards of advisors of the Houston and Austin Chapters of the Federalist Society. Owen was instrumental in organizing a group known as Family Law 2000 that seeks to find ways to educate parents about the effect the dissolution of a marriage can have on their children and to lessen the adversarial nature of legal proceedings when a marriage is dissolved.

Justice Owen has been honored as Baylor Young Lawyer of the Year and as a Baylor University Outstanding Young Alumna. Among her community activities, Justice Owen serves on the board of Texas Hearing & Service Dogs. She is a member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Mission in Austin, Texas where she teaches Sunday School and serves as the head of the altar guild.

In her successful re-election bid to the Supreme Court of Texas in 2000, every major newspaper in Texas endorsed Owen.

SOURCE: USDOJ: Office of Legal Policy