“I am a proud member of Leadership Austin’s Best Class Ever, the class affectionately nicknamed Y2K because we were the class at the turn of the new century. I’m Judge Lora Livingston and I want to thank and congratulate Leadership Austin for 40 amazing years of excellence.
“Y2K was an exciting and anxious time in Austin and around the world. Many people feared the world’s computers would stop working and that the economy and communications systems would collapse. Well, the world did not go dark and Leadership Austin helped shed light on that and many other pressing issues of the day.
“My Leadership Austin class was as diverse as the larger community and full of community giants (some who were giants when they arrived and some who became giants after graduation). I remain impressed by the diversity of occupations, hobbies and other interests, as well as the geographic and ethnic diversity of our class.
“Ours was a class of big thinkers with big ideas and the willingness to lead others in the right direction. We ended our time together committed to staying connected to one another and to using what we learned to make Austin, Texas, and the world a better place to live. And we have kept that promise by working on the City Council, in the State Legislature, in the courts, in nonprofit organizations, in churches, in our neighborhoods, and in many other arenas.
“During our first class session, we were told our classmates would become our new best friends. I am proud to say that I built many lasting relationships with my Y2K classmates. In fact, many years after graduation, I even married one of them!”
– The Honorable Lora Livingston (Essential 21 – 2000)
A graduate of the UCLA School of Law, Judge Lora Livingston was sworn in as an Associate Judge for the District Courts of Travis County, Texas in 1995. After her successful election, Judge Livingston was sworn in as Judge of the 261st District Court in 1999. She is the first African American woman to serve on a district court in Travis County. Since 2011, she has served as the Local Administrative Judge for the Travis County Courts. She began her legal career as a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellow assigned to the Legal Aid Society of Central Texas in Austin. After completion of the fellowship program, she continued to work in the area of poverty law until she entered private practice and later opened the law firm of Livingston & Parr. Judge Livingston is active in local, state and national bar association activities, serving on the boards of the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation, Texas Access to Justice Commission, the National Center on Women and Family Law, the National Association of IOLTA Programs, the Judicial Section of the State Bar of Texas, and the Board of the Texas Center for the Judiciary. Her American Bar Association service includes Chairmanships of the Commission on Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA), the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and the Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID). She has served as a delegate to the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association (ABA) representing the State Bar of Texas and the Travis County Bar Association. She is a Texas Delegate to the ABA Judicial Division National Conference of State Trial Judges. She has received numerous awards for her leadership and community services, including the Outstanding Attorney award from the Travis County Women Lawyers Association and the Women of Distinction Award by the Lone Star Girl Scouts Council.
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