John Hill Cayce Jr.

John H. Cayce, Jr. is the former Chief Justice of Texas’ Second Court of Appeals and current co-chair of the firm’s Appellate Practice group. During his fifteen years of public service as a state appellate judge, he sat twice as a Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas by appointment of Governors Bush and Perry and held various statewide leadership positions within the judiciary. Prior to his election to the bench in 1994, Mr. Cayce had risen to prominence as one of the state’s top appellate attorneys having successfully argued many significant cases in both state and federal courts, including the landmark decision Elbaor v. Smith, 845 S.W.2d 240 (Tex. 1992). Soon after leaving the bench in 2009, Mr. Cayce argued and won another historic case in the Supreme Court of Texas, Strickland v. Medlen, 397 S.W.3d 184 (Tex. 2013), which received national and international attention. A board certified specialist in appellate law and former Supreme Court of Texas briefing attorney, his writings on appellate procedure have been cited with approval by Texas courts and used as course material in law schools.

Mr. Cayce has actively served the legal profession and advised the Texas judiciary in many capacities, including service on the Supreme Court of Texas Advisory Committee and the Texas Judicial Council. He was recently appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas to serve as a member of the prestigious Texas Board of Law Examiners, the judicial agency responsible for administering the process for determining that applicants for a law license meet the qualifications set by the Court.  Among his many leadership roles within the Texas judiciary, he was elected by his peers to serve as Chair of the Council of Chief Justices of Texas and he was routinely appointed to chair committees that recommended and instituted reforms to the intermediate appellate court system in the areas of docket management, redistricting, court procedure, and appellate court funding.

In addition to his professional activities, Mr. Cayce commits much of his time to community service. Among other activities, he is a founder and former director of NewDay Services for Children and Families, Inc., a non-profit organization that works with the Tarrant County family and juvenile court systems to assist children and parents affected by divorce and juvenile crime. In 2009, he received NewDay's first "Community Servant Award" in recognition of his contributions and continued support of its work. Having served in the U.S. Navy Seabees during the Vietnam conflict, he frequently volunteers his time to assisting other veterans through legal clinics sponsored by the Tarrant County Bar Association’s chapter of the Texas Lawyers For Texas Veterans program. Mr. Cayce also serves as an advocate for the homeless in the East Lancaster community of Fort Worth.