Vince Cruz Jr.

Biography

Vince began his legal career in public service with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office during which his assignments included working in the intake, appellate, misdemeanor, juvenile, grand jury and felony sections.

After serving in the District Attorney's office, he focused on civil trial law in the private sector. In the decades that followed he was primarily retained by insurance companies, Class I railroads, and others in the defense of personal injury and other civil cases. During a portion of his career, he was outside counsel and later in-house counsel for Fort Worth based BNSF Railway Company. For the 30 years between 1991 and 2021, he was Board Certified in both Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Between 2008 to 2010, he served as the Director of Advocacy for Texas Wesleyan School of Law (now Texas A&M University School of Law) and oversaw the school’s Moot Court, Mock Trial and ADR programs, while coaching its interscholastic mock trial teams, instructing in trial advocacy and courtroom evidence.

In recent years he returned to public service as the Chief of the Civil Division of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, and as First Assistant to the Tarrant County Auditor.  

Vince graduated with high honors from The University of Texas at Arlington earning a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. He earned his J.D. law degree from The University of Texas School of Law, and then earned an LL.M. in Trial Advocacy from Temple University, Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, where he was selected as the recipient of the Faculty Award.