Senate Confirms Sean Jordan as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Sean D. Jordan of Jackson Walker as a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas. On January 16, 2019, President Donald Trump nominated Sean to succeed Senior District Judge Richard Schell, filling the final vacancy on the court.
Jordan joined Jackson Walker in 2000 and was elected to partnership in 2002, prior to serving as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General of Texas. In that role, he represented the state, its agencies and officials in numerous appeals and led a team of appellate lawyers in supervising the federal and state court appeals handled by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. He also coordinated the amicus curiae practice of the State of Texas in the U.S. Supreme Court, and federal circuit and state appellate courts.
He later rejoined the firm in 2015 with Kent Sullivan, who had previously served as a justice on Texas’ Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston, as a state district judge, and as First Assistant Attorney General under Greg Abbott. Together, Jordan and Sullivan co-chaired Jackson Walker’s Appellate practice group before Sullivan was named the state’s Commissioner of Insurance in 2017.
“Sean Jordan is an excellent appellate lawyer with an outstanding record,” said C. Wade Cooper, Jackson Walker managing partner. “His prior experiences as Texas’ deputy solicitor general, and as a trial lawyer, have prepared him to be an exceedingly effective federal judge. Sean will serve with great distinction.”
In a release, the firm said Jordan has handled complex civil litigation and appellate cases in both government service and private practice. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and has written numerous Supreme Court briefs, twice winning the “Best Brief Award” from the National Association of Attorneys General for outstanding brief-writing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jordan is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. From 2016 to 2018, he was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters). In 2015, he was recognized by The Legal 500 United States in the area of Commercial Litigation.
He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Texas at Austin and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law. Prior to attending UT Austin, he served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman and paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.
