First Court of Appeals

Chief Justice Terry Adams was elected to the First Court of Appeals in 2022.  In 2020, he was appointed by Governor Abbott to be a Justice on the Court.

Prior to joining the First Court of Appeals, Chief Justice Adams was an accomplished appellate attorney in Houston with his own appellate boutique.  Before that, he was an appellate partner in the Houston office of Akerman LLP and chair of the firm’s appellate practice group in Texas. Chief Justice Adams is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized in the area appellate law by Texas Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America.

Chief Justice Adams is a Past Chair of the Appellate Subcommittee of the Court Rules Committee for the State Bar of Texas and is a Sustaining Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. He is also a member of the Texas Bar College and the Council of Chief Judges of State Courts of Appeals--where he is the Chair of its Membership Committee.  And he is the current Chair of the Council of Texas Chief Justices. Chief Justice Adams is also a member of the Garland Walker American Inns of Court. 

Chief Justice Adams earned his undergraduate degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He majored with honors in political science and economics.  He then earned his law degree from South Texas College of Law Houston--where he was Editor-in-Chief of The South Texas Law Review. 

During law school, Chief Justice Adams served as an intern for the Fourteenth Court of Appeals. After graduation, he served as a briefing attorney for Justice Raul Gonzalez at the Supreme Court of Texas.

Chief Justice Adams and his wife have three adult children and are longtime members of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church.