First Court of Appeals

Place 3

Justice Veronica Rivas-Molloy was elected to the First Court of Appeals in November 2020.  She is the first immigrant elected to the First Court of Appeals, and only the third Hispanic woman to serve on the Court. 

Justice Rivas-Molloy was born in Mexico, and she grew up along the El Paso-Juarez border area.  She graduated with honors from the University of Texas at El Paso with a double major in Criminal Justice and Spanish.  She received her law degree magna cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center, where she served on the Houston Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif and Order of the Barons.  Justice Rivas-Molloy is a first-generation college graduate and attorney.  

During her tenure on the bench, Justice Rivas-Molloy has authored over 180 reasoned majority opinions and worked on countless more appeals involving civil, criminal, probate, and family matters.  She has been recognized for her work on the bench locally and nationally, most recently receiving the Judge of the Year award from the Hispanic Bar Association of Houston in 2024, and the Judicial Leadership Award from the National Hispanic Bar Foundation in 2025. 

Prior to serving on the bench, Justice Rivas-Molloy was an accomplished litigator and appellate lawyer.  She practiced law for 20 years representing clients in a diverse range of complex business disputes and matters involving employment law, trade secret litigation, oil and gas operations, personal injury, construction law, and real estate. She represented clients in Texas and other jurisdictions across the United States and abroad.  Fluent in Spanish, Justice Rivas-Molloy also had the opportunity to represent international clients in various matters.  She first worked as a judicial clerk for the Hon. Ewing Werlein, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and later at Baker Botts and Jones Walker, where among other things, she was recognized as a Rising Star in business litigation.  She also served as a volunteer Prosecutor for the City of Houston, where she tried numerous cases to the jury.

As a dedicated member of her community, Justice Rivas-Molloy served as pro bono General Counsel for Holy Trinity Episcopal School of Greater Houston, pro bono counsel for women and unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings, and pro bono counsel for several clients in a variety of legal disputes.  Justice Rivas-Molloy is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and a Life Fellow of the Houston Bar Foundation. 

Justice Rivas-Molloy and her husband David have been married for 22 years, and they have three young sons.