Justice Evelyn V. Keyes was appointed to the First Court of Appeals by Governor Rick Perry in May 2002. She was elected in November 2002 and re-elected to a full six-year term in 2004. Before joining the First Court, Justice Keyes was a partner in Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson, and Fulkerson, L.L.P., practicing complex civil litigation. She also served as a Special Assistant Attorney General to Texas Attorney General John Cornyn.
Justice Keyes received her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center, where was Chief Articles Editor of the Houston Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif, the Order of the Barons, and Phi Delta Phi and was awarded the Wall Street Journal Award and a distinguished service award. She served as an intern to the Honorable Carolyn R. King, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Justice Keyes is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar, the Texas State Bar, and the federal bars for the Southern and Western Districts of Texas and the Fifth Circuit. She is a member of the American Law Institute, the Texas State Bar College, and a life member of the Texas Bar Foundation and the Houston Bar Foundation. She is also a member of the American Bar Association, where she served as Young Lawyers Division Ethics Chair for two years; the Texas Bar Association, where she served on the Section 4-H Grievance Committee for six years; the Houston Bar Association, where she has served on various committees; the American Judicature Society; the Institute for Judicial Administration; and the National Association of Women Judges. In 2006, she was appointed to the State Bar Court Rules Committee. She is also a member of the American Philosophical Association and the Houston Philosophical Society and has published several law-related articles.
Prior to receiving her law degree, Justice Keyes received an M.A. and Ph.D in philosophy from Rice University and an M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of Texas. She graduated from Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University, magna cum laude, with a B.A. with honors in English. Justice Keyes spent her junior year abroad in Paris. She is a Woodrow Wilson fellow and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Justice Keyes and her husband, David, have four children and two grandchildren.
Updated: 14-May-2007
