TMSL Alumni > A Legacy of Excellence
Linda R. Yañez
Linda
Reyna Yañez, appointed by Gov. Ann Richards in 1993, is the first
Hispanic Woman to serve on an appeals court in the history of the state
of Texas and is the first woman to serve on the 13th Court of Appeals.
Previously she taught at the Harvard Law School. She has served on and
chaired numerous committees and boards, for the State Bar Associations
in Texas, Illinois and Massachusetts and nationally the American Bar
Association. She is licensed in Texas and Illinois and practiced
extensively in both the state and federal courts. She served as
consulting attorney to the Mexican Consul Generals in Brownsville, Texas
and Boston, Massachusetts and on the Legal Advisory Committee of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She has worked
extensively on refugee issues with United Nations NGO's and other
organizations traveling to Switzerland, the former Soviet Union and
Latin America. She served as Regional Counsel to the Mexican American
Legal Defense Fund. She has been a guest lecturer at the Law School at
the University of Valencia in Valencia, Spain.
Judge Yañez received her LLM from the University of Virginia Law School,
Juris Doctor from Texas Southern University Law School and her
Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas Pan American.
Judge Yañez has the distinction of being named "Outstanding Lawyer" and
"Lawyer of the Year" by the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas
and "Outstanding Alumnus" by the Houston Latino Lawyers and Law Students
Association and is recipient of the "Lifetime Achievement Award" of the
Hispanic Bar Association. In 2001, she received the "Reynaldo Garza
Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Hispanic Issues Section of the State
Bar of Texas and in 2006 the Section bestowed upon her the Pioneer
Award.
Judge Yañez was elected to the American Law Institute in 2003. She has
served on the Committee on International Judgements and Jurisdiction and
on the Committee on Revisions to the Model Penal Code, Sentencing
Project. She also has the distinction of being appointed to the faculty
of the National Judicial College in 2006.
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