Kyle D. Hawkins
7th Solicitor General of Texas
In office
September 10, 2018 – February 1, 2021
Attorney GeneralKen Paxton
Preceded byScott A. Keller
Succeeded byJudd E. Stone II
Personal details
Born
Kyle Douglas Hawkins

Johannesburg, South Africa
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of Minnesota (JD)

Kyle Douglas Hawkins is an American attorney and professor who served as Solicitor General of Texas from September 2018 until February 2021. Hawkins currently[when?] serves as adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin's law school.[1]

Early life and education

Hawkins graduated from Edina High School in Edina, Minnesota in 1998, and then attended Harvard University, where he received a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in 2002. He then worked as a management consultant in Chicago for two years, before moving to Japan for another two years to teach English. In 2006, Hawkins returned to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota Law School where he served as Editor in Chief of the Minnesota Law Review and graduated summa cum laude in 2009 with a Juris Doctor degree.[2][3]

Legal career

After law school, Hawkins worked briefly at Faegre Baker Daniels before serving as a law clerk for Judge Edith Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2010. Following this clerkship, he worked for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C. before serving as a law clerk for Justice Samuel Alito of the United States Supreme Court during the 2013–14 term. He then rejoined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he practiced law through their Dallas, Texas office before joining the Texas Attorney General's office in 2017, as an assistant solicitor general. In September 2018, he was appointed Solicitor General of Texas by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to succeed Scott A. Keller.[3][4][5][6]

In his role as the state's solicitor general, Hawkins represented Texas in cases before state and federal appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.[7] In 2018, Hawkins argued on behalf of 36 states seeking to uphold the separate sovereignty exception in Gamble v. United States.[8][9] A 2020 speech he gave at Stanford University Law School regarding the legality of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy was the subject of a student walk-out.[10]

Hawkins resigned from office effective February 1, 2021, and was succeeded by Judd E. Stone II.[11] He then rejoined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a partner in its Houston, Texas office.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Kyle D Hawkins | Faculty | Texas Law". law.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-09.
  2. ^ "Kyle Douglas Hawkins:2014 Temple Bar Scholar Report". American Inns of Court.
  3. ^ a b Kaczke, Lisa (2013-07-17). "Clerking for the Supreme Court". Sun Current. Edina, Minnesota. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  4. ^ Platoff, Emma (2018-09-19). "As solicitor general, Kyle Hawkins will lead Texas fights against the federal government". Texas Tribune. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  5. ^ Lindell, Chuck. "New Texas solicitor general named". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  6. ^ "Kyle Hawkins elevated to succeed Scott Keller as Texas solicitor general". Longview News-Journal. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  7. ^ "Kyle D. Hawkins, Solicitor General of Texas" (PDF). Congress.gov. 2019-06-25. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  8. ^ "Transcript of Oral Arguments in Gamble v. United States" (PDF). US Supreme Court. 2018-12-06. Retrieved 2020-09-18. KYLE D. HAWKINS, Texas Solicitor General, Austin, Texas; for Texas, et al., as amici curiae, in support of affirmance.
  9. ^ Barnes, Robert (2018-12-06). "Supreme Court seems reluctant to prohibit state and federal prosecutions of same crime". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-09-18. Texas Solicitor General Kyle D. Hawkins said the status quo was working well and meant state and federal prosecutors cooperate rather than compete. He said he was representing 36 states, with about 86 percent of the country's population. He noted 20 states bar prosecutions when there was already a federal conviction. 'The states may disagree with one another about various policy issues, but we are united here in urging the court not to overrule its long-standing interpretation of the Double Jeopardy Clause,' he said.
  10. ^ Ingram, Julia (2020-02-11). "Students walk out of Law School talk on legality of repealing DACA". Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  11. ^ "AG Paxton Announces Appointment of Judd Stone to Solicitor General and Departure of Kyle Hawkins" (Press release). Texas Attorney General's Office. January 13, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  12. ^ "Former Solicitor General of Texas Kyle Hawkins Returns to Gibson Dunn". gibsondunn.com. April 5, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2022.


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