Judge Elisabeth Earle will reflect on her career as a prosecutor and judge, and will discuss restorative justice and issues pertaining to the criminal court system in Austin.
About our Speaker:
Judge Elisabeth Earle is a lifelong Austinite who grew up in the city, attended Austin public schools, and graduated from the University of Texas. Her early career took her to London with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and then back home to the Texas Senate Jurisprudence Committee and Governor Ann Richards' Criminal Justice Division. That public service experience led her to law school at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.
She started as a prosecutor in the Travis County Attorney's Office, handling domestic violence cases, and later became a Municipal Court Judge for the City of Austin. In that role she helped create the Downtown Austin Community Court, the first community court in Texas, and served as its first Presiding Judge.
Since 2002, Judge Earle has served on the Travis County Court at Law bench, where she is Presiding Judge. In 2007 she founded the Travis County DWI Court, a treatment-based program that helps people overcome addiction and stay out of the justice system. She considers it one of her proudest accomplishments.
Community service has been a constant in her life. She is a Board Trustee of the Texas Bar Foundation, has led the Judicial Section of the State Bar of Texas, and has worked with the Salvation Army, Community Action Network, and Volunteer Legal Services of Austin. Her recognitions include the Mothers Against Drunk Driving National President's Award for Criminal Justice and the Travis County Women Lawyers' Pathfinder Award.
She and her husband, Jeff Clark, have two daughters, one a young lawyer in Austin and the other in law school.
