Background
Undeniably Qualified
After graduating Texas Tech School of Law in 1997, Judge Hicks opened his own law office, the Law Offices of Bill D. Hicks in the hill country, outside of Austin, Texas. In 1998, he closed that practice and moved to El Paso, Texas where he joined the 34th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Judge Hicks served the people of El Paso, Hudspeth, and Culberson Counties, for 12 1/2 years as an Assistant District Attorney, as a Special Prosecutor assigned to the Metro Narcotics Task Force, the Senior Trial Attorney on the Special Crimes Unit, the Senior Trial Attorney in Charge of Down-District Prosecutions, and finally as a Trial Team Chief in charge of supervising and training new prosecutors in the D.A.'s office.
During his time with the District Attorney's office, he was cross-designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney and prosecuted in federal court from 2003 to 2008. Then Assistant District Attorney Bill D. Hicks prosecuted everything from Class C misdemeanor offenses all the way up to and including Capital Murder charges.
In 2010 a vacancy opened in the State District Court in El Paso County. Bill Hicks and about 22 other people applied with the Governor's office for the appointment to fill that vacancy. After a very long process, that involved an extensive background check and multiple interviews, Bill D. Hicks was appointed as the Judge of the 243rd State District Court, here in El Paso, Texas. Judge Hicks served from late 2010 until the very end of 2012. As Judge of the 243rd District Court, he maintained a positive case disposition, which means that throughout his tenure, he disposed of more case than were assigned to his court. Judge Hicks presided over 26 criminal felony and civil jury trials while on the bench, to include several multi-million dollar civil cases. Judge Hicks received very high approval ratings from the attorneys in the El Paso Bar Association.
After leaving the bench, now former-Judge Hicks reopened The Law Office of Bill D. Hicks with a focus on mediation and arbitration, with Judge Hicks being a qualified Mediator. The practice was a general litigation practice.