US District Judge John McBryde, a stern force on the bench for 32 years, dies at 91
U.S. District Judge John H. McBryde, who served three decades on the federal bench in Fort Worth and earned a reputation as a no-nonsense jurist whom lawyers feared but his colleagues deeply respected, died on Christmas from natural causes.
He was 91 years old.
McBryde was appointed to the bench in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. He assumed senior status in October 2018 and continued working as a senior district judge until his death. He was a master of the law who expected the lawyers who brought cases into his courtroom to work as hard as he did.
“McBryde served the court with distinction, carrying a weighted caseload higher than the national average throughout his tenure as an active judge,” said an announcement of his death from the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Texas. “He also was well known as a faithful steward of the courthouse in which he served and was intent on preserving the historic integrity of the building.“
McBryde was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and grew up in Fort Worth. He graduated from TCU in 1953 and earned a law degree from the University of Texas in 1956.
His career began in 1956 with Cantey, Hanger, Johnson, Scarborough & Gooch, now Cantey & Hanger, according to the federal court. He was an associate there until 1962 and a partner to 1969, at which time he was named partner in McBryde & Bennett until he became a federal judge in 1990.
In 1989, when McBryde was recommended to Bush to succeed retiring federal Judge David O. Belew Jr., a U.S. attorney who had been among the candidates for the bench credited McBryde as being the “hardest-working attorney I have had the privilege of knowing.”
“He is all business and thoroughly professional,” Marvin Collins said. “I believe he will bring that same approach to the U.S. district bench.”
The 1989 story in the Star-Telegram described McBryde as a workaholic who got his first job at the age of 7, delivering shoes on his bicycle for a neighborhood cobbler.
He was the youngest of four children who grew up poor. His mother worked as a librarian’s assistant at Paschal High School. McBryde said his mother instilled in her children a commitment to education that drove them each to graduate from college despite their poverty.
McBryde was a tough judge whom lawyers sometimes feared. He would force lawyers to talk in simple sentences and not repeat themselves, and he would quiet them when they went on too long. He once fined a lawyer $300 for arriving 12 minutes late for a hearing, and cited that same lawyer for not being truthful about the location of a document in one of his files.
In another case, McBryde sent a lawyer to remedial reading class after the lawyer misinterpreted one of his written orders.
Judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sanctioned him in an unprecedented move and removed him from hearing cases for one year in a period that expired in 1999. The judicial panel had found McBryde guilty of “intemperate, abusive and intimidating” courtroom conduct.
Attorney David Broiles represented McBryde as he fought the sanctions. He told the Star-Telegram in 1999, when the suspension lifted, that the judge had been disappointed with the discipline but was unchanged.
“He’s pleased he’ll now be able to get back to his job, which is judging,” Broiles said. “I think they attorneys will find that Judge McBryde still expects the highest standards of conduct from them. And if they don’t like that, they probably won’t like him, and if they do, they’ll be glad to have their cases in his court.
“Lawyers say all kinds of things about how awful Judge McBryde is,” Broiles said. “But how many actually appear before him? I’ve never found him a vengeful person.”
But for each critic of McBryde’s style, there’s another who heralds his process.
Lu Pham, incoming president of the Tarrant County Bar Association, told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday that he couldn’t say enough how fine of a jurist McBryde was. To go into McBryde’s court meant you had to be prepared — Pham said it forced everyone who walked through the doors to meet McBryde’s high standards, and that it made them all better for it. Whenever Pham was in McBryde’s court, he always felt respected.
Benson Varghese, managing partner with Fort Worth firm Varghese Summersett PLLC, said in an emailed statement there was an art to appearing in front of McBryde and the need to be prepared. Varghese said McBryde raised the bar for federal practitioners.
“While clients were sometimes afraid of what they thought Judge McBryde might do in punishment, he was exceptionally fair in all the cases I had in front of him,” Varghese said. “Over the years, I’ve been particularly touched when my arguments resonated with him and led him to extend grace where others might not have.”
Longtime Fort Worth lawyer Mark Hill, who’s known McBryde since 1976, remembers the first time he met the judge. To Hill, McBryde was funny and someone who commanded the attention of the entire table when he told stories.
Behind the tough facade was a person who cared about people and doing the right thing, Hill said. There was the stern persona, but also the soft side that lent a hand to those were in need, and a dry sense of humor that would make McBryde laugh at his own joke after a pause.
Hill tried cases against McBryde before he became a federal judge and, like most, remember McBryde being a tough adversary. But once their time was up, McBryde would slip Hill a note asking to get a beer.
“When you were a friend of John’s, you were a friend for life,” Hill said Wednesday.
McBryde is survived by his wife of 68 years, Betty, and three adult children.
This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 10:27 AM.
