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Judge Lincoln Goodwin
Judge Lincoln Goodwin was unanimously appointed by Commissioners Court to serve as Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, Place 1, on December 16, 2014, and was elected to a full term in November 2016. He twice served as presiding judge for all Harris County Justices of the Peace. An attorney since 1998, Judge Goodwin was named a 2013 Texas Super Lawyer by Texas Monthly and a Top Lawyer by Houstonia magazine in 2013 and 2014.
Education and Career:
Judge Goodwin holds a B.A. in English from Baylor University (1994) and a J.D. from Texas Tech University School of Law (1998), and was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1998. He founded the Susan Fortney Award for Ethics, presented annually to the Texas Tech law student who best exemplifies the honor and integrity required of the legal profession.
After law school, he spent two years as a briefing attorney to U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings. He then returned to his hometown of Houston, where he handled litigation for several Fortune 500 companies at Seyfarth Shaw. Called to public service, he later served as a felony prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney's Office, handling violent crimes and crimes against children, and then as a senior attorney with The Lanier Law Firm, representing civil litigation clients across the country.
Community Activities:
A student of World War II history, Judge Goodwin conceived and helped organize Man to Man: An Evening with Louie Zamperini, a citywide event honoring the war hero and subject of the book and film Unbroken. He has visited battle sites at Omaha Beach, in the Philippines, and at Pearl Harbor, and has run the "three miles up, three miles down" course at Currahee Mountain near Camp Toccoa, Georgia, made famous by the book and miniseries Band of Brothers.
Before taking the bench, Judge Goodwin served on the State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee. He serves on the boards of directors of the Pearl Fincher Fine Arts Museum, the Barbara Bush Library, the Cypress Creek Christian Community Center, and on the Board of Advisors of the Chinquapin School for gifted, under-resourced children. He previously served on the Lone Star College Community Advisory Council and on the Directors Committee for the Phoenix District of the Boy Scouts.
Personal:
Judge Goodwin lives in Precinct 4 with his wife and two daughters. He has completed 15 marathons and an Ironman Triathlon, which includes a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon.
Judge Lincoln Goodwin was unanimously appointed by Commissioners Court to serve as the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, Place 1 on December 16, 2014. Precinct 4, Place 1 is one of the largest Justice of the Peace Courts in the State of Texas with annual case filings of over 100,000.