County Judge Justin Lewis hosted a delegation of current and former judges, attorneys and legal professors from Mongolia Sunday, December 3, at the Hill County Courthouse.
The visit was coordinated through the Judge Joe Spurlock Foundation, which continues the work of its late namesake with the cultural exchange of judges and attorneys between the United States and Mongolia.
“Judge Joe Spurlock was the individual who has had the greatest impact on the trajectory of my adult life,” said Lewis. “Judge Joe was an interesting individual that lived life in a way that it would take days to tell his story.”
The short version, Lewis said, is that he was a graduate of Texas A&M and then went to the University of Texas Law School in the early 1960’s. He was a commissioned officer in the United States Army and served in Alaska during the Great Alaskan Earthquake in 1964 and later in Vietnam, where he received the Bronze Star for bravery. His father was an attorney and judge on the 2nd Court of Appeals.
After the Army, Spurlock worked as a prosecutor and later at his own law firm. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1971 and was a delegate to the 1976 Texas Constitutional Convention. After his service in the House, he worked for Governor Dolph Briscoe and was appointed to a district court bench in Tarrant County. He was later elected to the 2nd Court of Appeals.
In his spare time, Spurlock worked with a group to create the Dallas Fort Worth Night School of Law, which later became Texas Wesleyan School of Law and is now Texas A&M School of Law.
“I met Judge Joe when I went to law school,” Lewis said. “Joe was always there to listen and advise. He made a lasting impact on a large number of students over the years, and I remember him as my greatest teacher, mentor and friend.”
In 1992, Mongolia held a bloodless revolution, eschewing communism for democracy.
“The Mongolians, who told me this part, reached out to the State Department, Ivy League schools and other American institutions for assistance with the transition of their courts to independent judiciary. All the above declined to help,” Lewis said.
“Then they heard about a judge in Texas that wasn’t particularly fond of communists but was interested in their plight. That began the relationship between Judge Joe and the Mongolians that would last the rest of his life.”
In 2010, Judge Lewis was in law school while Spurlock was hosting a Mongolian presidential delegation in Texas.
“The delegation had wanted to see a small court, and Joe had taken them to Tarrant County Justice Court, which is still a quite large operation,” Lewis said. “That did not satisfy the group, so Joe called me that night and asked if I could host the delegation the following day at the Hill County Courthouse and give a presentation on justice courts and specifically courts overseen by non-lawyer judges.”
Lewis put together a PowerPoint presentation that night and made a presentation to the visiting dignitaries, including the president of Mongolia, his daughter and a representative of the prime minister’s office who wrote the majority of their present constitution.
Later that year, Lewis was asked to travel to Mongolia in 2011 and give presentations at both of Mongolia’s law schools. He and Spurlock traveled to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, in October 2011. They spent 12 days in Mongolia meeting with lawyers, prosecutors, the vice president, members of parliament, law students and locals.
“They, outside of Texans, are the most hospitable people on the planet, in my opinion,” Lewis said.
A group of prosecutors later traveled to Hill County for a presentation, courthouse tour and visit with District Attorney Mark Pratt.
“I was asked to return in 2019 but county business kept me from going. Joe would come down to visit me at my farm south of Aquilla to just catch up on how I was doing and did so the last time two weeks before his passing in June of 2020,” Lewis said. “Judge Joe died with his boots on, at his desk at the law school, as he would have wanted it, in his 83rd year.”
The Spurlock Judicial Fund was created by the late Spurlock to ensure that his love of the law continued after his death.
“The judge, in his typical fashion, ordered several of his former students to establish the fund in order to promote judicial independence and democracy through the rule of law,” Lewis said. “The fund is working to ensure that Judge Joe has a living legacy through continued work in Texas and internationally.”
Among the visitors enjoying the courthouse tour and presentation were Ganzorig Gombosuren, a former judge of a Mongolian court that would be comparable to the United States Supreme Court, and a professor from Mongolia’s National Law School.
The guests were treated to a hamburger lunch and a tour of the Hill County Courthouse. Members of the Hill County Bar Association — including Assistant County Attorney Michaela Alvarado, local attorney Tony Silas, Senior 66th Judicial District Judge F.B. (Bob) McGregor Jr. and local attorney Martha McGregor — assisted in explaining to the group how Texas courts operate.
Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Shannon Skilling explained to the guests how justice courts operate in the state.
Judge Lewis also thanked Keith Lee and son Braxton and Jimmy Jaska for their assistance in cooking the meal.
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