J. Woodfin "Woodie" Jones
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Woodie Jones received his B.A. in Plan II from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975 and earned an LL.M. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995. He has been a member of the State Bar of Texas since 1975 and is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

After law school, he served as briefing attorney for Chief Justice J. Curtiss Brown of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston. He then practiced business litigation with Bracewell & Patterson in Houston from 1976 to 1981. He returned to Austin in 1981, where he practiced business litigation as a partner with Sneed, Vine, Wilkerson, Selman & Perry from 1981 to 1988.

Woodie was elected in 1988 as a Justice on the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, where he served until the end of 2000. He was highly respected as a jurist by members of the bench and bar.  In a 1993 survey asking the lawyers of Travis County to evaluate the performance of 37 Central Texas state, county, and federal judges at various levels, he was the top-rated justice of the Third Court of Appeals and was the third-highest-rated judge overall.  In a similar survey conducted in 1999, he was the top-rated judge on the entire survey (out of 36).  In his twelve years on the court, Judge Jones authored more than 1,500 opinions and participated in deciding roughly 5,000 appeals. During his last two years on the court, he served as the Senior Justice, presiding over one of the court’s three-judge panels.

Active in the Austin Bar Association, Woodie has served on the board of directors and held various offices, including president in 1987–88. He has been a frequent speaker and author for continuing legal education programs, most often in the areas of judicial decision-making and appellate advocacy.  He has been selected by Texas Monthly magazine as one of Texas’ “Super Lawyers” for 2004 & 2005 in the area of appellate law.  In addition to practicing as a board certified appellate lawyer, Judge Jones is an experienced arbitrator.

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