ROLLIE OLVERA ON SHORT LIST FOR FEDERAL JUDGESHIP

By Juan Montoya
With his leukemia in remission, sources have told us that Presiding Judge of the 5th Administrative Judicial Region, and also the 445th State District Court Judge Rolando Olvera has made the short list for consideration as a federal judge in the United States Southern District of Texas.

The sources, which preferred to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to release the information prior to the final decision being made, said that Olvera is the likely candidate to get the nod to the federal bench.
Olvera - originally appointed to the court by Republican governor Rick Perry - was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. The Olvera family has a long heritage in Brownsville that goes back to the 1890s. He attended college at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, and graduated in 1985. He graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin in 1989. Before going on the bench he was in private practice with a concentration in general civil practice, commercial litigation, international law and alternative dispute resolution.
Gov. Rick Perry named Olvera as judge of the 138th judicial district court serving Cameron and Willacy counties in 2005. Olvera served for a term until the next general election. Perry appointed Olvera as the presiding judge of the 5th Administrative Judicial Region on January 4, 2011. He was re-elected November 6, 2002 without opposition to a term that expires in 2015.