I have discovered recently that being a business attorney who doesn’t not derive most of his income from being a trial attorney is actually a benefit in this race for an open district court bench, the 410th District Court of Texas. For the most part, the voting groups backing me work for main street businesses, not Wall Street, and not as part of the trial bar/DA’s office axis that, for the most part, controls the outcome in judicial races throughout this county. Montgomery County is not unique — it is rare, if not impossible, to find a trial judge in Texas who’s immediately prior career hasn’t been as a courtroom advocate.
Should I be concerned that my life has not included being a full-time gun for hire? It appears, as far as the voters I have met are concerned, the answer is no. Voters nationally and locally are finding common ground with candidates who present something new, something that is out of the usual way we have done things are resonating with this year’s electorate. Just as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are finding favor with voters frustrated with repeating the same old, same old, my campaign to put me, a business leader and lawyer, on the bench is resonating with those that are frustrated by the lack of trial dates for civil law cases, and a lack of judges who are willing and able to handle the complex cases that many businesses find themselves embroiled in. Indeed in this county, we have the grand total of one (!) judicial officer whose docket is fully dedicated to resolving civil litigation matters. Roll a bowling ball down the halls of the courthouse in Conroe, Texas, and you will likely hit a criminal law judge or a family law judge, as those are as plentiful as bluebonnets along a Texas highway in the springtime. Good luck finding a Judge on the civil law side of the docket. I want to change that. I want to be a plus-one at the dance who actually contributes to the improving the environment for civil litigation in this county.
I have been involved in critical decision-making ever since high school graduation. I haven’t simply worked as a lawyer, I have worked as an electronic engineer at the Pentagon, as a Patent Examiner, as a Federal District Court Judge’s law clerk, as an associate with a multi-national mega law firm, as a State Supreme Court Justice’s law clerk, as the Chief Legal Officer of BlackBerry and as the business head of BlackBerry Europe. I have served business clients ranging from 1 person service providers to multi-national corporations, both in the US and internationally. I have been a mediator, trained as an arbitrator and I have taught law as a visiting professor at the University of Houston and the University of Pittsburgh. I was a graduate researcher in intellectual property law while I was completing my master of laws at Oxford University, England. With the exception of being a full-time litigator or a judge, I think have managed to played every other common role you will find a lawyer playing over the course of a diverse career. I might be a dying breed, a true generalist (at least in the field of business and commercial law) in a world where legal specialization is the norm. I do have a speciality that rounds out my legal service offering — I am a registered patent attorney with a broad knowledge of all types of intellectual property law. That makes me a legal jack of all trades, but through my specialty, I master a few unique areas that most attorneys won’t touch no matter how much you pay them. The unique and the challenging areas of law have always held the most interest for me, and where better to be on the cutting edge of legal practice than as a Judge on a court that handles civil matters or that handles a general jurisdiction docket that includes a fair amount of civil law disptues.
Assuming that at the end of the day, I am the last candidate standing in my race, I will take the bench with the fewest conflicts or apparent conflicts that would require me to recuse myself from the bench. Fewer recusals means fewer cases that have to wait for another Judge’s docket to open up for trial date, or for the county to have to pay for a visiting judge to hear the matter. The voters will definitely get their money’s worth if they elect to put me on the bench.
If you have an interest in seeing a strong civil law bench with Judge with a life view that includes representing primarily main street businesses, then I encourage you to visit my website, electchuckmeyer.com, and contribute a fiver or more to my campaign. I can’t guarantee you a return on your investment other than a certain business-like approach to the business of the 410th District Court. It is time that someone who strives to keep his clients out of the courtroom is given a shot to manage the courtroom called the 410th and resolve the business disputes on the docket with the benefit of understanding the underlying business issues that led to the dispute from the perspective of a business leader and lawyer, not a trial attorney.
