15 minute read
Judge Laura Salinas
166th Judicial District Court
By Stephen H. Gordon
Photos by Mewborne Photography at The University of the Incarnate Word
As a young teen, Laura Salinas had a feeling that she was destined to go into either the field of law or medicine. A couple of her cousins were already in the medical field. However, her parents helped steer her in the right direction by telling her, on more than one occasion, that she should become an attorney. That may have had something to do with her early ability to hold her ground in any family argument. The medical field’s loss ended up being the legal community’s gain.
Growing Up
Judge Salinas is a San Antonio native. Her mother was born in Nueva Rosita, in the Mexican State of Coahuila; and her father was born in Nordheim, Texas—both small towns. An appreciation for small town values is clearly in her blood. She has fond memories of the many summers spent visiting Nueva Rosita in her youth, where her mother and her family had a huge influence on her life and her overall work ethic. She describes her mom as a “traditional Hispanic mother, who would work hard all day, then come home and take care of the house and family.” Although her mom had only a fourth-grade education, she had a wealth of “real world experience.”
Spanish was the Judge’s first language, but she learned English at elementary school, and “picked it up pretty quickly from kids in the neighborhood.” She was oldest of five children, so she learned to step up and become a leader and caretaker of others early on in life. Although being the first-born came with some benefits, it also meant she had the strictest upbringing of her siblings, including a curfew until she was in her early twenties!
Judge Salinas attended Robert E. Lee High School and graduated in 1990, becoming the first in her family to finish high school. She went on to get her undergraduate degree at the University of the Incarnate Word. Although there were early indications of her interest in the legal field, the decision to become a lawyer was not an automatic one. She did well in all school subjects, so at first, she was not sure which direction to go. At Incarnate Word, she majored in International Business and minored in Spanish, where she could put her bilingual skills to beneficial use.
Early Career
Her first legal job, during her freshman year in college, was working as a receptionist for local Attorney David Leibowitz. Talking to his clients and hearing their stories really helped solidify her decision to enter law school. A significant amount of her time was spent working on class-action asbestos litigation. The firm represented several hard-working, poor people—many with Mexican ancestry. Helping obtain compensation for those who had suffered serious health injuries helped instill in her a sense of getting justice done for her clients.
By her junior year in college, the Judge knew she wanted to go to law school. However, she never envisioned that she would end up practicing family law or criminal law, or becoming a judge. She originally planned to have a practice focused on international business instead. As she explains, “The good thing about the law is that it offers a lot of choices, but that can sometimes be overwhelming when you are trying to narrow down the focus of your actual career path.”
After graduating from Incarnate Word, she entered the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 1994. During her third year of law school, she gained some more real-world legal experience by working as a law clerk for Attorney Reynaldo Diaz. While there, she worked on civil litigation cases, with a primary focus on personal injury matters. Rey recalls her being very eager to learn the ropes and “doing a great job with every task that [he] threw at her—researching, drafting motions, preparing for depositions, etc.”
In 1997, Salinas graduated from SMU law school and became licensed to practice law. She still remembers the day she found out that she had passed the Bar Exam. She learned that good news the old school way—by calling in to a special State Bar of Texas phone number to get the results. She also remembers the stress of awaiting the results, which she helped manage using her mother’s “Peppermint Oil” remedy to clear her head and relax.
Her first post-law school job was working for local Attorney Virgil Yanta, where she tackled the basic challenges of being a young, new attorney. Shortly thereafter, she decided to go out on her own, taking up residence in an office with Attorney Tony Jimenez. While there, she focused primarily on family law and criminal law cases. She admits to having initially been a bit intimidated by the idea of working on criminal cases, but she ended up really enjoying the process.
As time went on, she gradually developed her own style of lawyering and became more confident in handling the complexity and contentious nature of the courtroom. Along the way, she always tried to remain committed to being the type of lawyer who did not want to make a fight out of every case just for the sake of fighting. She learned this in large part by watching how Tony handled his cases.
Tony helped her learn the ropes and gain her financial footing by offering her a base salary and showing her how to obtain more cases through the court appointment system for indigent clients. He also offered her a very practical financial arrangement for any new clients she brought into the firm—-“You eat what you kill.” She credits Tony with helping her get out of her initial comfort zone and become more confident about meeting new people and public speaking. These skills would become invaluable in the next phase of her career.
Tony’s first impression of Salinas was that she had real empathy for her clients. By all the questions she asked, he could tell that she had a real passion for her career and a powerful desire to learn the nuances of criminal law. To help her gain the experience she needed, Tony took her into the courtroom to sit second chair with him on some felony trial cases. After a few times of sitting co-chair, she started handling cases on her own. Tony jokingly started referring to her as the “public defender” because he kept seeing her in the same courtroom over and over as her caseload grew. By then, there was certainly no sign of the lack of confidence that she credits him with helping her overcome.
One of Tony’s fondest memories of working with Salinas is when he went into her office one day to fix his tie before court and stood in front of a large mirror she had in her office. Attached to the mirror was a prayer card entitled “My Morning Prayer.” He was struck by the positive and humble message within the prayer, and the fact that she would incorporate this prayer into her daily routine, even though she clearly had the intelligence and wisdom to be a success on her own.
Later, when the Judge asked Tony to speak at her initial investiture, he read a copy of the prayer to the attendees. Senator Leticia Van de Putte was in the audience that day and was so impressed by the prayer that she approached him afterwards and asked for a copy of it. He was happy to oblige.
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My Morning Prayer
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24)
O God, for another day, for another morning. For another hour, for another minute, for another chance to live and serve Thee, I am truly grateful.
Do Thou this day free me
from all fear of the future,
from all anxiety about tomorrow,
from all bitterness towards anyone,
from all cowardice in face of danger,
from all laziness in the face of work,
from all failure before opportunity,
from all weakness when Thy power is at hand.
But fill me
with Love that knows no barrier,
with Sympathy that reaches to all,
with Courage that cannot be shaken,
with Faith strong enough for the darkness,
with Strength sufficient for my tasks,
with Loyalty to Thy Kingdom’s goal,
with Wisdom to meet life’s complexities,
with Power to lift me to Thee.
Be Thou with me for another day and use me as Thou wilt.
For Christ’s sake I pray. Amen.
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Judge of County Court at Law No. 9
In 2006, Salinas made the decision to run for Judge of Bexar County Court at Law No. 9. She did not necessarily have an intense drive to become a judge back then, but she was approached by several people who said she had the right demeanor for the job and should seriously consider running for office. After giving some more thought to the idea, she decided to jump in at the last minute. Her primary race was about as close as you can get—she won by a mere seven votes—and she realized then that the oft-repeated phrase “every vote counts” was not just a slogan, but the truth. She ended up winning the general election with a much wider margin of victory and started serving in 2007.
The Judge estimates that she presided over at least seventy or so criminal jury trials while on the County Court at Law No. 9 bench. She was also a frequent participating judge in the “Courts in Schools” program. As part of that program, real-life court hearings are conducted in area middle schools and high schools so that students can see firsthand how criminal cases are presented in court. All the main parties take part in the process—prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers and the defendants—so the students can see the role each plays in the legal system.
Shortly after taking the bench, Judge Salinas married her husband Ray Garza, and they had their first and only child a couple of years later, a daughter. Although her family life was moving in a positive direction, her reelection campaign did not go according to plan, and she lost her reelection bid in 2010. Although losing reelection was a disappointment, she credits her husband with reminding her that, as a lawyer, she had the luxury of going back to work in her field immediately, unlike most people who lose their jobs.
She quickly put this loss behind her and embarked on the next phase of her career. She got an office in Attorney Oscar Gonzalez’s building, returning to the familiar territory of family law, criminal law, and some business law cases. Eventually, her primary focus centered on family law cases, as she once again started building up her own private practice.
Judge of the 166th Judicial District Court
As time went on, she realized that she wanted to return to the bench, but she was not too thrilled about the idea of running against a sitting Judge again. When she learned that District Court Judge Martha Tanner was retiring from the 166th Judicial District Court in 2011, Salinas decided the timing might be right. Judge Tanner encouraged Salinas to jump into the 2012 race and give it her best effort, so Salinas decided to throw her hat into the ring as a candidate for the 166th District Court.
This election campaign was a success, and Judge Salinas again took her seat on the bench in 2013. As a District Court Judge, though, her docket was significantly different from her time as County Court at Law Judge. Although her focus had to switch from criminal law cases to civil law cases, her experience in a variety of fields equipped her well to handle these changes.
The Judge’s second attempt at reelection went better than her first time in county court, and she secured her second term in office in 2016. She was just as successful on her third run in 2020, winning her seat on the bench again. By this time, she had spent so much of her life campaigning that, at one point, her daughter started to think that the Judge’s full name was actually “Vote Laura Salinas.” Judge Salinas was unopposed going into her fourth term as the Judge of the 166th Judicial District Court.
She sees her judicial temperament as one of her greatest strengths and feels that she tends to exhibit the typical characteristics of a Libra— balanced and low-key. She has found that it is important to hide your emotions and try to keep a “poker face” while performing the duties of being an impartial decision-maker. She also remains mindful of the need to avoid contracting a case of “Robe-itis,” which can lead to a Judge’s gradually seeing himself or herself as above the other parties in the courtroom, and always thinking that he or she is right. As she puts it, “We judges need to always remember that the job does not belong to us, as we are just here to serve the people.” Judge Salinas’ colleagues describe her as even-tempered, fun-natured, and fair.
Like all District Court Judges, she spends most of her time presiding over family law cases, which tend to be the most contentious and emotionally difficult. She strongly encourages all parents to confer and try to work out a compromise agreement before going forward with contested hearings. She warns them that it will be so much easier to coparent afterwards, if they avoid an ugly public battle and somehow find common ground instead. Knowing the potential ramifications of her rulings in these cases is one of the toughest parts of her job.
Another sometimes difficult part of the job is dealing with today’s social media climate. Although it is a necessary part of the job to be actively in the public eye when running for office, she has noticed that it does have some concerning downsides. She came to realize the importance of drawing a line between one’s personal and one’s professional life, and she has found herself sometimes feeling the push to take a step back from her social media presence from time to time. This distinction is even more critical currently, when security threats to public officials have unfortunately been on the rise in the last few years.
Throughout her career, Judge Salinas has received several awards for her contributions to the local legal community. These include the “Outstanding Women in Action” award from The La Prensa Foundation, and the “Best 100 Hispanic Role Models” award from the Riverside Park Academy. Looking back on her career, she says she can still remember what it was like being a “baby lawyer.” “You blink, and time flies by. It still seems like just yesterday that I first got elected.” However, as Judge Peeples recently reminded her, she has now worked her way to becoming one of the more senior judges on the bench.
Life Off the Bench
In her personal life, the Judge’s main interests are simply spending time with her family and traveling. Her family is close-knit and still gets “together for Sunday dinners every week.” Traveling is not something she could really afford to do when young, so she is now making up for lost time. She finds it especially important to expose her daughter to other countries and other cultures along the way.
It is one thing to read about novel places in books. It is another to see them in person with your own eyes.
One of the most memorable trips she recalls taking was to an archaeological dig site in Oaxaca, Mexico. She took her daughter on a tour there, and they came across a local artist who made clay sculptures with his hands. Sadly, the sculptor had lost his sight at age 55, but he still somehow managed to make everything from memory. He had a little workshop with his wife, who helped add the details to his pieces after he crafted the basic shapes. Despite their hardships and modest living conditions, they seemed genuinely happy with the life they had. Judge Salinas believes it is essential for her daughter to experience encounters such as this in order to get in touch with her roots and history. As she explains: “It is one thing to read about novel places in books. It is another to see them in person with your own eyes.” She hopes to travel to Europe, Greece, Switzerland, and other parts of the world sometime in the future.
