Chief Justice Catherine Stone
4th Court of Appeals, San Antonio
4th Court of Appeals Chief Justice Catherine Stone (D-San Antonio) will not seek re-election in 2014.
Justice Stone has served on the Fourth Court of Appeals since 1994. She was born in Biddeford, Maine in 1953. She received her bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, in foreign affairs from Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. She attended St. Mary’s University School of Law, where she served on the law journal and the legal research board. She received her juris doctorate in 1982.
Chief Justice Stone served as a briefing attorney at the Fourth Court of Appeals for Justice James Baskin and Justice Pete Tijerina in 1982-1983. She practiced trial and appellate law for eight years with the San Antonio law firm of Watkins, Mireles, Brock, and Barrientos, and continued her appellate practice in the Law Offices of Catherine M. Stone for three years prior to being appointed by Governor Ann Richards to fill a vacancy on the Fourth Court on March 24, 1994. Chief Justice Stone has since been elected three times to serve six-year terms on the court, and in 2008 she was elected Chief Justice of the Court.
Chief Justice Stone served on the Texas Supreme Court Task Force on Foster Care from 1994 through 2007, and currently serves as a member of the Texas Multidistrict Litigation Panel. In 2011 Chief Justice Stone was elected by her peers to serve a two-year term as the Chair of the Texas Council of Chief Justices. Chief Justice Stone is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization (1987), and is an active member of various state and local bar associations, civic and church groups, and community associations. Chief Justice Stone was named a San Antonio Woman to Watch (1997) a Texas Woman to Watch (1997), and a St. Mary’s University School of Law Distinguished Graduate (2011).
Chief Justice Stone and her husband, Dr. Tom Stone, live in Helotes and are the parents of three sons.
