I have known David Bridges since the fall of 1978 when we both were in college at Texas Eastern University, which was soon to become the University of Texas at Tyler. We were both taking Political Science classes, which was our major. We soon became good friends and David also befriended my parents during our time in college.
David worked a full-time job while in college and I found out that he had served in the Army and was also an Eagle Scout in his youth.
David and I graduated with our Political Science degrees from UT-Tyler in 1980. We both took the LSAT as a pre-requisite for law school and while David applied and was accepted at several Texas law schools, I decided to go to work as a petroleum landman. When David decided to defer the school for a year to work to offset the expenses, he and I worked together for a year with the same broker doing oil and gas leasing. After that, David went on to law school at Texas Tech and I continued on for a few years as a petroleum landman.
David went on after graduation and became an Assistant District Attorney in a couple of counties in East Texas, including Smith County, in Tyler. After that, he went on to work for about a year for the Texas State Bar where he did investigations into ethics violations by attorneys in the state.
When David had interest in running for the U.S. Congress, he wanted to avoid any conflicts of interest and went into private practice. He met a great many people during his two runs for congress, including many of the state and federal officials serving our state and country. David eventually decided that one way he could make a difference was as a justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals, which is one of the state’s 14 courts of appeal.
David has served on this court since 1997 and I have known him to always be a thoughtful and dedicated person who is impartial and fair. While David is a true conservative, he is also a very compassionate human being and I have always known him to do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Patrick Paro
Houston, Texas
