Debra Lehrmann

Background

Justice Lehrmann (maiden name Debra Herman) is a native of Harris County and was raised in Baytown, Texas. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated with high honors in 1979 from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1982, she received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she practiced family law with the Fort Worth law firm of Law, Snakard & Gambill. In 1990, she was named the "Outstanding Young Lawyer of Tarrant County." In 2003, she was cited by the Texas Bar Foundation for having written the "best bar journal article" of the year. An active member of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association, she served as chair of the Section in 2010-2011 and as the Judicial Liaison to the Judicial Division of the ABA. She previously served on the Executive Committee of the Section Officers Conference of the ABA. Justice Lehrmann served on the drafting committee for the ABA Standards of Practice for Lawyers Representing a Child in Abuse and Neglect Cases. She also serves as a representative of the State of Texas on the Uniform Law Commission, which drafts uniform laws for states to consider enacting.

On the state district court, Lehrmann specialized in family issues and abuse cases. Prior to judicial office, she was in private practice and served as the lead attorney and director of the Enforcement Division of the Tarrant County Domestic Relations Office.

She and her husband, Greg Lehrmann, have two adult sons, Gregory and Jonathan Lehrmann. The family resides in Colleyville near Fort Worth in Tarrant County. They are active members of the First United Methodist Church of Colleyville.

Political life

In the general election held on November 2, 2010, Lehrmann, a Republican, won the Place 3 position on the Texas Supreme Court by defeating her Democratic opponent, Jim Sharp of Houston. Lehrmann polled 2,902,003 votes (59.9 percent) to Sharp's 1,805,837 (37.3 percent). A Libertarian, William Bryan Strange, III, polled the remaining 138,579 ballots (2.9 percent). Earlier she had won a primary runoff against Rick Green, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, who staged an unsuccessful comeback attempt for the Place 5 seat on the court in 2016.

Lehrmann succeeded retired Justice Harriet O'Neill on the all-Republican body. When O'Neill stepped down in June 2010, with more than six months left in her six-year term, then Governor Rick Perry appointed Lehrmann to the position.

Lehrmann won renomination to a second term in the Republican primary on March 1, 2016. She defeated Judge Michael Christopher Massengale (born c. 1972) of the First Court of Appeals in Houston. Lehrmann carries the endorsement of the Houston Chronicle, which called her "a hard working and respected justice with impeccable credentials." She is also backed by the United Republicans of Harris County. In January 2016, Justice Lehrmann polled 64 percent in a Republican straw poll in Tarrant County. She also received major party endorsements in Williamson County.

With Republican primary turnout reaching a record level, Lehrmann defeated Judge Michael Christopher Massengale (born c. 1972) of the First Court of Appeals in Houston by nearly 100,000 votes, winning 1,130,137 (52.2%) to 1,034,609 (47.8%).

She ran well statewide and won comfortable majorities in her home county of Tarrant and her opponent’s home county of Harris.^[12] In the November 8 general election, Lehrmann, with 4,807,986 votes (54.8 percent), defeated the Democrat Mike Westergren, who tallied 3,378,163 (38.5 percent). The remaining 6.6 percent of the ballots case went to the nominees of the Libertarian and Green parties, Kathie Glass and Rodolfo Rivera Munoz, respectively.