Henry J. Bemporad

The Hon. Henry J. Bemporad has been a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for Western District of Texas in San Antonio since 2012. Previously, he was the federal public defender for the Western District of Texas from 2007–12, served as a deputy federal public defender (1998–2007), a supervisory assistant federal public defender (1993–98), and as an assistant federal public defender (1990–93). From 1988 to 1990, he clerked for the Honorable Edward C. Prado with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Judge Bemporad recently served on the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions for the District Judges Association of the Fifth Circuit, assisting in the preparation of Pattern Jury Instructions (Criminal Cases) (2015 ed.). He served the U.S. Courts as the appellate representative to the Office of Defender Services Training Expert Panel, as co-chair of the Defender Supreme Court Resource & Assistance Panel and as defender liaison to the Judicial Conference Criminal Law Committee. He also previously served as co-chair of the National Association of Federal Defenders Amicus Committee, as Fifth Circuit vice-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Amicus Committee, and as a member of the board of directors and the executive committee of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. He co-founded and has served for many years as regular faculty of the Federal Judicial Center’s Appellate Writing Workshop.