Supreme Court of Texas Senior Justice Debra Lehrmann will receive the Samuel Pessarra Outstanding Jurist Award from the Texas Bar Foundation during the foundation’s annual dinner on June 20 at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort in San Antonio.
The award recognizes active or retired federal or state judges with “an exceptional reputation for competency, efficiency, and integrity,” according to a press release. It was established in 1995 in honor of Baylor Law School graduate and Brazoria County Bar Association Past President Samuel Pessarra.
Justice Lehrmann, who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas in 2010 and was a Tarrant County trial judge for 23 years, is the Supreme Court’s longest-serving woman justice in Texas history.
She has served the profession in leadership roles including as past chair of the American Bar Association Family Law Section; a commissioner on the Uniform Law Commission; member of the American Law Institute; inaugural chair of the State Bar of Texas Child Protection Law Section; past president of the Lochridge Inn of Court; emeritus member of the Mahon Inn of Court; and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation, and the Tarrant County Bar Foundation.
Lehrmann’s past recognition includes the University of Houston’s Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Lectureship in Legal Ethics Jurist-in-Residence Award, the Champion for Children Award, the Texas Women Lawyers Pathfinder Award, the State Bar of Texas Child Protection Law Section Founder’s Award, the Texas Bar Foundation’s recognition for Best Law Review Article, the CASA Scott Moore Award, and the Eva Barnes Award.
She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated from the University of Texas with high honors. She received her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and received her LL.M. degree from Duke University.
The Texas Bar Foundation was established in 1965 as a project of the State Bar of Texas. Its fellows have awarded more than $28 million in grants to nonprofit organizations “with a focus on legal assistance for the underserved, the administration of justice, ethics in the legal profession, legal research and education, and strengthening public understanding of the judiciary,” according to a press release. For more information, go to txbf.org.