Elton Joe Kendall (born 1954) is a former

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (in case citations, N.D. Tex.) is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in ...

Education and career

Born in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, Kendall was a

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

in the

Dallas Police Department The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas. Organization The department is headed by a chief of police who is appointed by the city manager who, in turn, is hir ...

from 1972 to 1978. He received a

Bachelor of Business Administration A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is an undergraduate degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of four years and typically 120 credits of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of busine ...

from

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

in 1977 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from Baylor University School of Law in 1980. He was an assistant

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

of Dallas County, Texas from 1980 to 1982, thereafter entering private practice in Dallas until 1986.

Judicial career

Kendall was a judge on the 195th Texas State District Court from 1987 to 1992. On March 20, 1992, Kendall was nominated by President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

to a new seat on the

created by 104 Stat. 5089. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on May 12, 1992, and received his commission on May 15, 1992. In 1999, he was also appointed by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

to be a Commissioner of the

United States Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for articulating the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the federal courts. The Commission promulgat ...

. Kendall resigned from the bench, on January 22, 2002, and from the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2003.

Other service

During Kendall's public service, he was editor of ''In Camera'', the national newsletter of the

Federal Judges Association Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

, where he was also a member of the Board of Directors. As a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Kendall worked on many important sentencing issues including guidelines dealing with white collar fraud cases, penalties in drug and immigration cases, internet fraud and pornography guidelines, as well as corporate governance and compliance issues under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Kendall taught in numerous programs presented by the

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of re ...

(the entity that teaches federal judges) in Washington, D.C. beginning in the mid-1990s. He has taught the Federal Sentencing Guidelines to new federal judges at Federal Judicial Center orientation programs and docket management to experienced federal judges from around the country. Kendall has also taught conference workshops for the federal judges of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, federal trial and appellate prosecutors from throughout the country at their training center in South Carolina, lawyers of the Federal Bar Association and United States Probation Officers nationwide. Kendall has also been a faculty member of the Texas Center for the Judiciary, the educational entity that teaches Texas State Judges.

Post-judicial career

Following his resignation from the bench, Kendall managed the Dallas office of Provost Umphrey. The law firm gained national recognition for its lead against tobacco companies for the State of Texas, producing a $17.3 billion settlement. As of 2017, Kendall is managing partner of Kendall Law Group, LLP. His practice focuses on complex civil and criminal litigation.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Elton Joe 1954 births Living people Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas Southern Methodist University alumni Texas state court judges United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush Members of the United States Sentencing Commission Baylor Law School alumni