Justice Cory Carlyle continues a career in appellate law and public service after a successful term at the Dallas Court of Appeals, including becoming Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
His judicial philosophy is as follows: stare decisis is the fabric of the appellate judiciary. The courts have no place taking sides on issues, ideas, or movements. Judges must remain studiously neutral. And when on the bench, they take the facts and apply the law as written to preserve the rule of law.
A Career
Justice Carlyle began his career in the Appellate Section of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, litigating state’s appeals in criminal cases and working on some of the early DNA-based exonerations in Texas. After meeting his now-wife Misty, who was based in Washington, DC, Justice Carlyle moved east and continued his work as a prosecutor. Soon after, an opportunity to join the Criminal Justice Act panel arose, and Justice Carlyle began accepting appointments to represent indigent criminal defendants at trial and on appeal.
Fast forward six years and several oral arguments in the DC Court of Appeals, and the Carlyles moved home to Texas, where Justice Carlyle continued accepting indigent criminal appointments in local courts. Something was wanting, and adding civil appellate work to the mix was the answer. Soon after, Justice Carlyle became the Democratic candidate for the 2018 Fifth District Court of Appeals race. Along with seven fantastic candidates, Justice Carlyle took the bench at the Fifth Court on January 1, 2019, where he remained until December 31, 2024. In that time, Justice Carlyle authored approximately 300 opinions and was part of the panel in a thousand others.
Justice Carlyle is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law, the gold standard for appellate lawyers in Texas. He is a member of TACTAS, the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists. He currently works in the appellate section at Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons in Dallas, handling all manner of civil cases in state and federal courts.
