Women make up 51 percent of the population, but only a third of elected positions. What does the path to serving as an elected judge look like? How do judges in our civil district courts serve the public? What is a judge’s day like and how is it different during the pandemic? Judge Jan Soifer, who has served as the presiding judge of the 345th District Court since 2017, will share her path to being elected a civil district judge and how others can prepare to run for office. Jan graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with a J.D. in 1982, after receiving a B.A. in 1979 from Yale University. As a full-time trial lawyer in Austin for over 34 years before becoming a judge, her experience has included handling the recent successful case by a same-gender couple against the Hood County Clerk for refusing to issue a marriage license to them after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down laws against same-sex marriage; the case by Whole Woman’s Health and other Texas abortion providers against the State of Texas which successfully challenged the restrictive provisions of HB2 that had closed more than half of the abortion clinics in Texas (in a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court); a whistleblower case that resulted in a settlement of almost $100 million dollars for fraudulent behavior by a large hospital chain; and the successful class action lawsuit against the Pedernales Electric Cooperative based on fraud and breaches of fiduciary duties by its management.
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