Hon. Robbie Partida-Kipness

Justice, Fifth District Court of Appeals

Justice Robbie Partida-Kipness is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and was born and raised in New Braunfels, Texas. She is a first-generation college and law school graduate and attended the Universities of Texas in Austin and San Antonio and received her law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law in 1998. Prior to taking the bench, Justice Partida-Kipness spent 21 years championing the rights of individuals involved in personal injury, medical malpractice, and mass tort cases.

In 2018, Justice Partida-Kipness made history by becoming the first Hispanic to ever be elected to the Fifth District Court of Appeals which presides over Dallas, Collin, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall, and Grayson counties. It is the largest appellate court in the State of Texas and handles one of the largest caseloads of any of the intermediate courts of appeal.

She currently serves as secretary on the executive board for Texas Latinx Judges, whose sole mission is to empower Latinx judges in the State of Texas and to promote diversity, inclusion, integrity, and excellence in the judiciary. She has twice chaired the “Thriving in Law School and Journeys to the Bench” program for UNT Dallas College of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law, and Texas A&M School of Law Hispanic Law Students Associations. These programs have been highly successful and have brought Latinx jurists from across Texas to teach and mentor Hispanic law students. Justice Partida-Kipness believes if “you can see it, you can be it”.

Justice Partida-Kipness is a frequent guest speaker for the UNT Dallas College of Law Hispanic Law Student Association and recently joined the UNT Law Dean’s Advisory Council. She is proud to announce she will be receiving the Distinguished Law Alumni Award from St. Mary’s University School of Law on November 2, 2024.

Her main passions are mentoring law students and young lawyers and bringing diversity to the judiciary. She was instrumental in helping create the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association’s Judicial Externship Program and continues to hire law students for clerkships in her chambers each summer.

In 2020, Justice Partida-Kipness was appointed to serve on the Supreme Court of Texas Children’s Commission and continues to serve as a commissioner. Child welfare is of great importance to her and she is honored to serve the State of Texas in this capacity. She also serves on the Children’s Commission Training Committee which works to create programs to educate jurists and practitioners in child welfare law.