James C. Ho

James C. Ho serves as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before taking the bench, he was a partner and co-chair of the national Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. As an appellate litigator for over a decade, including three years as the solicitor general of Texas, Judge Ho presented 50 oral arguments in federal and state courts nationwide. He won numerous appeals, including three merits cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. His work has been cited favorably by courts at every level of both the federal and state judiciaries, and he is the only state solicitor general in history to be invited by the U.S. Supreme Court to express the views of a state. Judge Ho has served in all three branches of the federal government, including on the Senate Judiciary Committee as chief counsel of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Subcommittee on Immigration; at the Justice Department as special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and an attorney-adviser at the Office of Legal Counsel; and as a law clerk for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Ho has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law.