Texas Supreme Court advisory

Contact: Osler McCarthy, staff attorney for public information

(512) 463-1441 or click for email

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

COURT APPOINTS NEW CLERK OF THE COURT

Blake Hawthorne, since 2005 the Texas Supreme Court’s staff attorney for original proceedings, is the new clerk of the Court.

The Court announced Hawthorne’s appointment to staff Tuesday afternoon.

As clerk, he will serve a four-year term. He replaces Andrew Weber, who had been Court clerk since July 2002. Weber resigned to return to private law practice in Austin.

“Blake has been a tremendous asset as mandamus attorney, exhibiting an impressive knowledge of our rules and employing the wisdom he has acquired as a practicing attorney,” said Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson. “The state of Texas will benefit greatly from his leadership as clerk of the Court.”

Hawthorne joined the Court after working as an assistant Texas attorney general. He is an honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and of Tulane University and previously worked for Jackson Walker in its Fort Worth office and for Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C. He has published articles on the expert testimony implications of Daubert v. Merrell Dow, 509 U.S. 579 (1993), and on mandamus procedure in the Texas Supreme Court.