Gregg Costa traded judge's robes for Gibson Dunn's Houston office
Gregg J Costa, a lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, in his office on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022 in Houston. Costa took the rare step at 50 of resigning a lifetime appointment to the Federal bench to go into private practice.Federal appellate judges seldom resign, and they almost never go back to practicing law – especially those on short lists for the U.S. Supreme Court.
A judicial moderate who went from teaching third and fourth graders at a public school in rural Mississippi to a prestigious clerkship for conservative icon Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Costa said he increasingly found himself writing dissenting opinions as part of a near-perpetual minority, as six conservative judges appointed by President Donald Trump joined the Fifth Circuit between 2017 and 2020.
“Gregg is a gifted constitutional scholar and an incredibly gifted writer,” said Chief Judge Lee Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas. “He is truly beloved by district court judges because of his ability and willingness to defend the district judges even when others were dismissive of the role of district judges. He is going to be missed.”Born in Baltimore, Costa was 18 months old when his parents moved to the Dallas area for work.
After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, Costa clerked for U.S. Chief Justice Rehnquist, who Costa describes as “a wonderful boss” and working with him was “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” “The management part of the case – juggling all the parties, collecting evidence on five different continents – was the hard part,” he said. “The international aspect was unprecedented.
“The fact that this case is still awaiting trial 14 years after we shut Stanford and the firm down shows just how slow and inefficient the civil justice system can work at times,” Costa said. “I definitely plan to go watch some of the trial live in the courtroom.” “Gregg restored dignity and reliability and trust in the federal bench in Galveston,” Judge Rosenthal said. “He was a terrific district judge.”
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