Judge Mark T. Pittman was confirmed as Fort Worth’s newest federal district judge in August 2019. He joins the federal bench after an impressive and extensive career that included stints as a private practice litigator, a law clerk for Judge Eldon B. Mahon, a federal prosecutor and a state trial and appellate judge.
In a wide-ranging conversation about his career and current office, Judge Pittman told his story and shared his judicial preferences: He asks litigants to be courteous and civil, to shun gamesmanship and to not overcomplicate things.
Rural Texas Roots
Judge Pittman grew up in the small town of Cooper, Texas. The son of a USDA soil conservationist and a schoolteacher, Judge Pittman didn’t grow up aspiring to the law. In fact, he didn’t know any lawyers, save one: Judge Lanny R. Ramsay, the state district judge who served a collection of communities in East Texas. Judge Ramsay was a respected community leader and role model. He was honest and fair. And he was, in turn, respected and admired. For Judge Pittman, that’s when the “judge seed” was planted.
That seed was nurtured over the next 20 years. Judge Pittman left his hometown and headed to College Station, where he majored in political science at Texas A&M, and then to Austin to attend UT Law.
These decisions were inspired by a passion for politics and history. Judge Pittman especially loved (and still loves) Texas political history, intrigued by historical periods such as the post-WWII era, during which Texas’s congressional delegation included towering figures like Lyndon B. Johnson, Sam Rayburn and George Mahon. Law school was a great place to explore those passions.
After law school, Judge Pittman moved to Fort Worth, where he began his litigation career. He started by working for — and being mentored by — two giants of the law: first Dee J. Kelly Sr. at Kelly Hart & Hallman, and then Judge Eldon B. Mahon of the Northern District of Texas (and then for Dee Kelly again).
Judge Pittman fell in love with Fort Worth and the practice of law. Judge Mahon — who would become a lifelong inspiration — always said that “Tarrant County is the best place to practice law, and Fort Worth is the best kept secret in the country.” Judge Pittman agreed. To be sure, it didn’t hurt that it was in Fort Worth that Judge Pittman met and fell in love with his wife, Katrina.
In 2004, the Pittmans moved to Washington, D.C., for a post with the Department of Justice’s Commercial Litigation Branch. There, Judge Pittman tried sophisticated multimillion-dollar lawsuits involving financial institutions and government contracts in the Court of International Trade in New York and the Court of Federal Claims in D.C.
The first-chair trial experience was invaluable, Judge Pittman recalls, but not more so than working in teams with talented lawyers from across the country. Just as much as the nuts-and-bolts experience of the trial work, those relationships were perhaps the most valuable legacy of Judge Pittman’s DOJ experience. (Judge Pittman also became one of the foremost experts on imported Chinese garlic, though he has yet to find much use for that expertise in his post-DOJ career.)
After about three years in D.C., the Pittmans had their first child (they eventually had four), which prompted a move back to Fort Worth. But the move hardly marked the end of Judge Pittman’s career as a federal prosecutor and civil servant. He continued to amass extensive and varied complex litigation experience in Texas with the U.S. Attorney’s Office (both in the Civil Division and Economic Crimes Division), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In 2015, Judge Pittman’s judicial aspirations became reality. Governor Rick Perry tapped Judge Pittman for the 352nd District Court in Fort Worth in one of Governor Perry’s final judicial appointments. He served on that court for two years, where he presided over approximately 80 civil jury trials a year.
And then, in 2017, as Governor Greg Abbott’s first appellate appointment, Judge Pittman was elevated to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals. There he really showed his analytical chops, writing easy-to-read opinions that simplified the complex and brought legalese to life with metaphors and turns of phrase.
In shooting down an overly expansive reading of the Texas Citizens’ Participation Act, for example, he reminded litigants that the statute was no “Swiss army knife, a tool always ready to obtain the early dismissal of every objectionable case or controversy.” The Texas Supreme Court has since agreed.
Stepping Up to the Federal Bench
President Trump nominated Judge Pittman to the Northern District in January 2019, and he has now been on the district bench for nearly a year. One of his biggest takeaways from his first year on the federal bench is the amount of time and attention required by the criminal docket.
“When you’re talking about someone’s life,” he says (referring largely to sentencing), “you have to invest the appropriate time and attention.” That leaves less time to digest complex civil litigation, and he implores litigants to help him out.
Roadmap arguments at the outset of your motion. Use helpful, signposting headings — and use them often. In short, make it easy for him (or his clerks) to set down your brief and pick it up without forgetting what he was reading. He has also found that Rule 12(b)(6) is overused.
“Don’t use 12(b)(6) for pleading defects,” he requests. “Get a deposition and let me resolve the whole case on summary judgment.”
And, on all fronts, he wishes lawyers would “pick up the phone” and resolve minor disputes before seeking judicial intervention: “Use common sense and civility.” (That’s one of the things he appreciates about Fort Worth: The legal community is smaller and cordial, and the lawyers generally treat each other with respect.)
Over the last six years, with service on three different courts, Judge Pittman has seen cases and issues running the gamut. Yet his rapid rise through the judicial ranks (and the extensive experience he has accumulated in the process) has led not to overconfidence but to humility.
Central to Judge Pittman’s judicial philosophy is to acknowledge what he doesn’t know. He approaches the controversies before him with the recognition that it is up to the district court to diligently and efficiently review and resolve disputes. That way parties are timely heard, and justice is timely administered.
Judge Pittman knows, of course, that he might get reversed by the Fifth Circuit. But that doesn’t threaten his pride. His goal isn’t to avoid reversal at all costs. It’s the Fifth Circuit’s job to expound on the meaning of the law, and he’s content to leave that to them — for the most part.
Chris Knight is an appellate associate in the Fort Worth office of Haynes and Boone. He joined the firm in 2017 after clerking for Justice Jeff Brown on the Supreme Court of Texas and Judge Leslie Southwick on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.