Rumors have swirled for months regarding President Donald Trump’s potential nomination of former Harris County Judge Ryan Patrick to an open U.S. Attorney spot, and the White House made it official on Wednesday with a wave of nomination announcements.
Patrick was included in the president’s eighth wave of U.S. Attorney nominations and, if confirmed, will represent the Southern District of Texas covering 43 counties and 8.3 million Texans.
In 2012, Patrick was appointed to the 177th criminal district court in Houston, where he served until 2016. Prior to that he worked for six years as an assistant district attorney with the Harris County District Attorney’s office.
Since leaving the bench, Patrick has served as the managing partner of his own law firm and as Senior Counsel with HooverSlovacek.
The Southern District of Texas is the 7th largest U.S. Attorney’s office (USAO) in the country and covers seven different U.S. court divisions. The Southern District also prosecutes more cases than any other USAO in the country. The district covers Houston and everything along the southern coast and US-Mexico border down to Brownsville. While based in Houston, the district has offices in Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, and Victoria.
