Thomas R. Phillips

Thomas R. Phillips is the third longest-serving chief justice in Texas Supreme Court history, having been appointed to that position in early 1988 and then elected and re-elected in 1988,
1990, 1996, and 2002. Before joining the Supreme Court, he served as a general-jurisdiction district judge in Harris County, giving preference to civil disputes that did not involve family law.

Phillips’ peers elected him president of the Conference of Chief Justices in 1997-98, during which time he also chaired the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts. He served on the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2005 and a a member of the Texas Historical Commission from 2006-13. He previously served on the Federal-State Relations Committee of the Administrative Conference of the United States, the American Bar Association’s Political Contributions and its Commission on the 21st Century Judiciary, as a director of the American Judicature Society, and as president of the Philosophical Society of Texas. A member of the American Law Institute since 1990, he has served as an advisor to several of its projects or restatements.

Phillips delivered the William J. Brennan Lecture on State Courts and Social Justice at New York University Law School in 2002, and he was a member of the United States Delegation of the
Visit of Members of the Supreme Court of the United States to the Court of Justice of the European Communities and other European Courts and Institutions in 1998.

A native of Dallas, Phillips earned a B.A. from Baylor University in 1971 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1974. He has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees from St. Edward’s University and Texas Tech University. He practiced law in Houston before becoming a judge and has practiced in Austin after leaving the bench.