Jeff Boyd has been selected to receive the prestigious 2020 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Fifth Circuit. After a pandemic-related delay, Boyd will receive the award from Judge Carl E. Stewart of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and American Inns of Court Executive Director BG Malinda E. Dunn, USA (Ret.) at the Judicial Conference for the Fifth Circuit in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 5.

Since 2012, Boyd has been a justice on the Supreme Court of Texas. Before assuming that role, he served as chief of staff and general counsel for former Texas governor Rick Perry. Before that, he was a senior partner at Thompson & Knight LLP, where his civil litigation practice focused on government disputes. After serving as a partner and associate at Thompson & Knight, he spent three years as deputy attorney general for civil litigation in the Office of Texas Attorneys General John Cornyn and Greg Abbott before returning to Thompson & Knight.

Boyd has also been active in the American Inns of Court. He co-founded the Barbara Jordan American Inn of Court in 2015 and serves as its counselor. “Our Inn…would not have been started, much less advanced to the point it has, without Justice Boyd’s participation and leadership from its inception to today,” writes Eric J.R. Nichols, the Inn’s president, who nominated Boyd for the award on behalf of the Inn’s members. “Justice Boyd’s contributions to our Inn are steady and ongoing.”

After hearing a presentation about a high school mock trial team and their dream of attending a national competition in Chicago, for example, Boyd offered to match Inn members’ donations to fund the trip and invited the team to visit the Texas Supreme Court. Boyd is also an Emeritus member of the Robert W. Calvert American Inn of Court and served as its president from 2012 to 2013.

Boyd earned a cum laude undergraduate degree from Abilene Christian University in 1983. After spending five years as a youth and family minister at Brentwood Oaks Church of Christ in Austin, Boyd turned to law. In 1991, he earned a summa cum laude law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Pepperdine Law Review. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas M. Reavley of the Fifth Circuit.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in nearly 370 chapters nationwide.

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Justice Jeff Boyd selected to receive the 2020 American @innsofcourt Professionalism Award for the 5th Circuit. bit.ly/AIC_2020_Boyd