First Court of Appeals

Chief Justice Terry Adams was elected to the First Court of Appeals in 2022.  Before that, he was appointed by Governor Abbott in 2020 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.  And before that, he was an appellate partner at Akerman LLP in the Houston office 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 appellate law by Texas Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America.

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

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

He and his wife have been married for more than forty years. They have a son and two daughters and four grandkids, with a fifth on the way.

His current term ends December 31, 2028.