Texas Supreme Court advisory

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September 24, 2008

RETIRED JUSTICE ROSE SPECTOR HONORED

BY PORTRAIT AT ST. MARY’S LAW SCHOOL

St. Mary’s University has honored former Texas Supreme Court Justice Rose B. Spector with her portrait presentation for the law school’s Law Alumni Wall of Honor.

Justice Spector, who served on the Court from 1993 through 1998, was the first woman elected to the Court and the third to serve on it full time.†

Justice Nathan L. Hecht, the only member of the current Court who worked alongside Justice Spector, said the honor was a great tribute. “Rose Spector was one of the finest justices I’ve had the honor to serve with on the Supreme Court,” he said. “The recognition she receives from St. Mary’s Law School, her alma mater, is well deserved for a life of service to the legal profession, the judiciary, and the people of Texas.”

Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson, who like Justice Spector is from San Antonio, said she helped guide his legal and judicial career.

“I had the honor of practicing before Judge Spector when she was a district judge in San Antonio and of arguing before her when she was on this Court,” he said. “She was direct, always practical and thorough. As a trailblazer herself, she inspired me to dream big.”

St. Mary’s Law Dean Charles E. Cantú and university President Charles L. Cotrell announced the portrait unveiling Tuesday in a news release. Justice Spector’s portrait will hang in the Sarita Kenedy East Law Library's Law Alumni Room.

“Justice Spector is a dear friend, former classmate, distinguished jurist and an outstanding member of the Texas Bar,” Cantú said in the university’s release.

Spector practices law in Austin with the firm Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP, and teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

Spector graduated magna cum laude from St. Mary’s Law School in 1962. Before joining the Texas Supreme Court, she served as a judge for Bexar County Court at Law and on the 131st state District Court bench.

St. Mary’s awarded her with the Rosewood Gavel Award for Outstanding Jurist in 1993 and she was named 1995’s Distinguished Law Graduate. Spector has also been honored with the Corporate Fund for Children’s "Tell It Like It Is" Award and the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional Excellence from the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism.

† Three women appointed to the Texas Supreme Court (then a three-member court) to hear one case in 1925 are believed to be the first all-woman appellate court in U.S. history.