Justice Jim Sharp was elected to the First Court of Appeals in November 2008. He previously practiced as a general solo practitioner for nineteen years, representing clients in a wide range of matters, encompassing probate, civil, criminal, juvenile, and family law. He litigated cases in trial courts across the state and prosecuted and defended appeals before the courts of appeals in Houston, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Supreme Court of Texas.
Justice Sharp graduated from South Texas College of Law in Houston. While attending night classes at South Texas, he worked full-time as a law clerk for Reynolds, Allen & Cook; Butler & Binion; Fulbright & Jaworski; Hardy, Milutin, & Johns; and The Chaffin Law Firm.
An English and Government student at The University of Texas at Austin, he worked full-time for the Texas Legislature, serving on the House Calendar Clerk’s staff, on the Senate Education Committee staff, and as administrative and legislative director to two state representatives.
Prior to attending law school, he worked for the Washington, D.C. political consulting firm of Matt Reese & Associates, where he planned and implemented U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns for candidates from Alaska to New Hampshire. Thereafter, he served as public relations director for American Income Life Insurance Co. in New Mexico and Massachusetts and was a sales representative for Federal Envelope, a division of Champion International Company.
Commissioned in 1986 by Governor Mark White, Sharp has served as an Admiral of the Texas Navy for more than twenty-three years. He is also a member of the Naval Order of the United States and the Texas Navy Association; a member of the Board of Directors of HoustonWorks USA; a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas; a Preservation Council Steward of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; a donor to the Commit for Life program of the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center; a member of the Irish Society of Houston; an Honorary Citizen of Father Flanagan’s Boy’s Town, Boy’s Town, Nebraska; a Patron of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston; and a patron of Kenneally’s.
Married to Susan Sharp, his wife of 20 years, Jim serves as a lector at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Houston.
Updated: 15-Jun-2010
