Appointment of United States District Judge Charles R. Eskridge III, Houston Division
Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
Nominated by Donald J. Trump on May 3, 2019, to a seat vacated by Gray Hampton Miller. Confirmed by the Senate on October 16, 2019 and received his Commission on October 18, 2019. Judge Eskridge was administered the oath of office by Chief Judge Lee H. Rosenthal on October 22, 2019.
Education:
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, B.S., 1985
Pepperdine University School of Law, J.D., 1990
Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. Charles Clark, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1990-1991
Law clerk, Hon. Byron R. White, Supreme Court of the United States, 1991-1992
Special assistant, Hon. Howard M. Holtzmann, Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, The Hague, 1992-1994
Private practice, Houston, Texas, 1994-2019
Adjunct professor of law, University of Houston Law Center, 2006-2018
Distinguished visiting practitioner of law, Pepperdine University School of Law, 2011
We’re not hanging around at S.D. Tex. – Newly appointed US District Judge Charles Eskridge III, who’s resume included representation of Lehman Brothers after the financial crisis of 2008 is being assigned #OCWEN cases
The takeaway here is that as long as the people, the citizens of America who vote without thought and rely upon sensationalized, partisan political rallies to steer their decisions, you will always be controlled by government + bank corruption. You are gifting them your liberty. pic.twitter.com/QCKYnbwxZT
— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) January 16, 2020
Trump Court Pick Reveals $5M in Quinn Emanuel Partner Pay Since 2017
Charles Eskridge III, a nominee for a seat in the Southern District of Texas, reported earning $2.3 million in 2018.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner Charles Eskridge III, nominated for the Texas federal trial bench, reported earning more than $5 million in partner compensation from the law firm since 2017, according to newly released financial disclosure reports.
Eskridge reported earning $2.3 million in 2018, up slightly from $2.2 million in 2017, according to the disclosure provided by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Average partner compensation at Quinn Emanuel last year was $3.5 million, ninth highest among Am Law 100 firms, according to a review conducted by affiliated publication The American Lawyer.
Eskridge’s disclosure offers a rare look into compensation at Quinn Emanuel given the scarcity of court and federal agency nominees Trump has drawn from the firm. Veteran appellate lawyer Christopher Landau, the Trump administration’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Mexico, reported earning $3 million at Quinn Emanuel, according to his financial disclosure. Landau left Kirkland & Ellis for Quinn Emanuel in March 2018.
Eskridge, who was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in May, has been a partner at Quinn Emanuel since 2015. He joined the firm’s Houston office from Susman Godfrey, where he had been a partner since 1997 after arriving as an associate there.
Eskridge clerked for Justice Byron White during the 1991-1992 term, and clerked for Judge Charles Clark on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit a year earlier. The Texas Lawyer honored Eskridge as a “40 under 40″ rising star in 2001.
The fed gov bankruptcy overseer chose Mr Valukas a former federal prosecutor and a specialist in white collar crime as the examiner in Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and he infers in this interview that Dick Fuld was not telling the truth to Congress about his knowledge of Repo 105 pic.twitter.com/aPfFOo8Sop
— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) January 16, 2020
Eskridge declined to comment Wednesday. He appeared last week for his confirmation hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Eskridge joined the Houston chapter of the Federalist Society in 2018. He reported receiving $2,000 in both 2017 and in 2018 in honoraria from the Federalist Society.
Eskridge has spoken about the Magna Carta and its ties to the Constitution and Bill of Rights at various Federalist Society events. Eskridge also participated in an event titled “Originalist Hamilton: The Musical and the Constitution,” speaking at Georgetown Law and the Colorado Lawyers Chapter in 2018 and 2019.
The theme fits within Eskridge’s teachings as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center, a job he plans to keep, according to his Senate questionnaire.
“I anticipate continuing to teach and lecture at the University of Houston Law Center and Pepperdine University School of Law,” Eskridge said in the questionnaire. “I would accept invitations to do so at other law schools to the extent time permitted. l have agreed to teach my class on Origins of the Federal Constitution in Spring 2020 at the University of Houston Law Center.”
Eskridge has litigated complex commercial matters in federal and state courts, according to his questionnaire and law firm bio.
In 2018, he was part of a Quinn Emanuel team that won a $622 million arbitration award against Petrobras on behalf of client Vantage Drilling. The breach-of-contract case included allegations of bribery and an offshore drill ship that costs more than $500,000 per day to lease.
“I have represented both plaintiffs and defendants without a particular emphasis on behalf of either,” Eskridge told the senators. “I have represented individuals, including classes of individuals, against corporations and government entities. I have defended corporations against claims by individuals, including classes of individuals. And I have represented corporations in disputes with other corporations, and individuals in disputes with other individuals.”
Eskridge Represented Anthony Graves Pro Bono
Charles Eskridge focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation in federal and state courts across the country at both trial and on appeal. He joined Quinn Emanuel’s Houston office in 2015.
He has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes litigation, including representation of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) after the financial meltdown of 2008;
one of the main defendants in actions arising after the 9/11 attacks; the interests of the London Insurance Market during the asbestos bankruptcy crisis; and an operating system technology company in groundbreaking antitrust action against Microsoft.
His litigation experience includes energy contracts and operating issues, antitrust, patents, aviation disaster, securities fraud, the First Amendment, legal ethics, fraud, employment and trade secret issues, and insurance coverage.
More recently, Charles obtained a $622 million award in international arbitral proceedings regarding improper early termination of a long-term deepwater drilling contract, with proceedings to confirm that award pending in the Southern District of Texas.
He also successfully represented Anthony Graves pro bono before the State Bar of Texas in grievance proceedings to disbar the Texas district attorney who wrongfully prosecuted and put him on death row for nearly 18 years for a crime of which he was later completely exonerated.
A former law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit, Charles is a member of the American Law Institute and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center, where he teaches a class of his own design on Origins of the Federal Constitution.
Texas Law and Politics and Texas Monthly Magazine have named Charles among the State’s “Super Lawyers” (Thomson Reuters) since 2005.
He volunteers his time to the Houston legal profession, serving in leadership roles with the local American Inns of Court.
He supports access-to-justice initiatives and is a Sustaining Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and the Houston Bar Foundation.
Admit that you as an #attorney cannot avoid liability on the ground that you were acting as an agent for your client if you knowingly commit a #fraudulent act that injures a third person. Toles v. Toles (Tex. App. 2003); Likover v. Sunflower Terrace II, Ltd (Tex. App. 1985). #law pic.twitter.com/QH5Mhfdz3y
— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) August 16, 2019
