Lawyer, 37, named 1st Court of Appeals justice

Gov. Rick Perry’s recent appointee to Houston’s 1st Court of Appeals will be the youngest justice on the state’s appellate courts. On June 15, Perry announced his appointment of 37-year-old Michael C. Massengale (pictured), a partner in Baker Botts in Houston, to replace Justice Tim Taft. As of March 1, the youngest justice in the state’s appellate court system was 38, according to Profile of Appellate and Trial Judges published on the State Office of Court Administration Web site.  Massengale, who has a general commercial and securities practice at Baker Botts, says he probably will not report for duty at the 1st Court until Aug. 1 to give him time to finish projects in the works at his firm. Taft says May 31 was his last day as a member of the 1st Court, but he has stayed as a visiting judge. Massengale, a 1997 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, says he developed an interest in becoming a judge while serving as a law clerk for 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harold DeMoss Jr. After working as a law clerk for two years, Massengale joined Baker Botts in September 1999 and made partner in January 2007. Michael Cinelli, spokesman for Baker Botts, notes in an e-mail that Massengale will become the fourth lawyer from the firm to serve as a justice on the courts of appeals in Houston.
-- Mary Alice Robbins