Ten years ago, San Angelo lawyer Carmen Symes Dusek made a name for herself when she served as the lead attorney for the 330 children taken from Warren Jeffs' Yearning For Zion polygamist compound in what turned out to be the largest child custody case in U.S. history. Now she's been appointed as a judge of the same court that heard that case.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Dusek, a senior counsel with Jackson Walker, to replace longtime 51st District Court Judge Barbara Walther, who presided over the polygamist case and ordered the children's removal.

The case was extremely difficult because the Texas Family Code requires that a district court hold a hearing within 14 days after Child Protective Services removes a child from a home to establish temporary managing conservatorship of a child, and the state must show why the child should not be returned to his or her parents.

Dusek organized and led a team of 263 volunteer attorneys from across Texas in just nine days to represent the children. The case ultimately had more than 500 parties involved before the children were eventually returned to their mothers. Several members of the group were sentenced to prison for sexual assault of a child, including Jeffs, who is serving a life term for raping two girls.

“Judge Walther has decided to take senior status after 31 years of service as a district judge. The opportunity to be her successor is extraordinary,” Dusek said. “I'm so honored to have this position because Judge Walther has some big shoes to fill. I told Judge Walther I would work hard, do her proud and continue her legacy on the court.”

Walther will swear in Dusek on December 14th in an investiture held in the same courtroom where the Yearning For Zion case was heard. Dusek said she's borrowing the robe of her other favorite Texas judge, Marilyn Aboussie, for the ceremony. Aboussie also previously served as a state district judge in San Angelo and as a justice on the Austin's Third Court of Appeals. Dusek served as a law clerk for Aboussie after graduating from Texas Tech Law School in 1996.

Dusek began her legal career at Jackson Walker's Austin office, but she left to practice with her father, Clint Symes, for 17 years in her hometown of San Angelo. She rejoined Jackson Walker last year and has worked on a range of litigation matters, including personal injury defense, agriculture litigation, business litigation, probate litigation and family law.

Dusek is a former vice president of the Tom Green County Bar Association and a former nominations committee member of the Texas Association of Defense Council.

“The firm and our litigation group will miss having a terrific attorney like Judge Dusek among us, but Texas will have a fantastic district court judge,” said W. Ross Forbes Jr., who leads the trial and appellate litigation practice at Jackson Walker.