Gerald Pruitt
   Of Counsel

Gerald received his B.A. in History in 1975 from the University of Texas at Arlington. He attended the University of Texas School of Law, graduating in 1978. Gerald returned to Fort Worth and became an Assistant Criminal District Attorney in the civil division and then opened a law office in Arlington in 1981. Shortly after opening his office in Arlington, Gerald was offered the position of Municipal Judge in Mansfield, a mostly night-court position which he held for twenty years. He subsequently became the part-time judge in Crowley, Burleson, Everman and Springtown. The part-time Mansfield position played perhaps the greatest role in Gerald's career path as it led to a position in Sansom Park as part-time prosecutor, where Gerald would become City Attorney in 1987. Shortly after taking over as City Attorney, Gerald was faced with his first civil rights case following a police shooting outside city hall. Soon after this first civil rights case, Gerald began representing City of Fort Worth police officers as a conflicts attorney in what became the core of his day-time practice.

 
 

In 2000 Gerald was asked to join Fort Worth City Attorney office as Deputy City Attorney over litigation, representing the City of Fort Worth in civil rights cases and other litigation matters. His position as Deputy City Attorney ended his night-court circuit riding, but allowed him to become actively involved in Tarrant County Bar Association (TCBA) functions including resurrecting the TCBA mentoring program (Transition to Practice), serving as its Chair for a number of years before becoming Chair of the TCBA Fee Arbitration Committee. Gerald is currently a member of the Texas Bar Grievance Committee for District Seven.

After retiring from the City of Fort Worth in 2020, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson asked Gerald to rejoin the Civil Division of the office until her retirement. He worked there until December of 2022.

Gerald is a Life Member of the Texas Bar Foundation and the Tarrant County Bar Foundation, as well as a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas since 1985. Gerald has an AV rating with Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™.

Gerald has experience in litigation over city retirement plans, annexation, eight-liner regulation, wrongful death cases under the Texas Tort Claims Act and Civil Rights litigation. He has argued appeals in state and federal appellate courts.

Practice Areas

Municipal Law  
Litigation  

Education

University of Texas at Arlington  
      o Bachelor of Arts in History with Honors 1975
University of Texas School of Law 1978

Licensed

State Bar of Texas 1978

Admitted

Supreme Court of the United States  
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit  
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia  
United States District Court, Northern District of Texas  
United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas  
United States District Court, Southern District of Texas  
United States District Court, Western District of Texas  
United States District Court, District of Columbia  

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

Tarrant County Bar Association  
College of the State Bar of Texas  
Texas Bar Foundation  
Tarrant County Bar Foundation  

Awards, Publications and Presentations

A.V. Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating™  
Member: College of the State Bar of Texas 1985 to present.  
State of Texas Outstanding Mentor Award, 2017-2018, presented by the Texas Young Lawyers Association State Bar of Texas.  
District 7 Grievance Committee Member for the terms 2019-2022 and 2022-2025, Panel Chair 2020-2022.  
Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.  
Life Fellow of the Tarrant County Bar Foundation.  
Tarrant County Bar Association – Mentor Committee Chair 2007, 2008, 2011, Fee Arbitration Committee Chair 2012-2019.  
Mentor of the Year Award in 2018 presented by the Tarrant County Young Lawyers  
State Bar of Texas C.L.E., Suing and Defending Governmental Entities Course, July, 2002, Show Me the Money, Evaluating the Civil Rights Claim.  
Presentation to Texas Wesleyan University Graduate Negotiations class, June, 2010, A Comparison of Texas Public Employee Collective Bargaining Statutes.  
State Bar of Texas, July, 2011 State Bar Leaders Conference, Mentoring Programs for Texas Lawyers.  
Tarrant County Bar Association Mentoring Program, March, 2012, Everything the Beginning Lawyer Needs to Know About Setting Up an Office and Dealing with Clients.  
Government Practice Series at SMU Dedman Law School, February, 2013, Government Law Practice Panel Discussion.  
Tarrant County Bar Association Brown Bag Seminar - September, 2014, ETHICS, The Tarrant County Fee Arbitration Committee.  
Fort Worth City Attorney's Friday CLE September, 2014, Who is your client and how to effectively represent them?  
Government Practice Series at SMU Dedman Law School, February, 2015, Government Law Practice Panel Discussion.  
Tarrant County Bar Association Seminar for Court Administrators, March, 2015, Fort Worth City Attorney's Office. Who are we?  
Tarrant County Bar Association Seminar for Court Administrators, February, 2016, Alternative Dispute Resolution and the TCBA Fee Arbitration Committee.  
Government Practice Series at SMU Dedman Law School, February, 2016, Government Law Practice Panel Discussion.  
Fort Worth City Attorney's Friday CLE May, 2016, Regulation of Firearms.  
Government Practice Series at SMU Dedman Law School, February, 2017, Government Law Practice Panel Discussion.  
Women's Policy Forum of Tarrant County April, 2018, Texas Gun Laws.  
Tarrant County Bar Association/ Texas A & M Law School March, 2019, Texas Gun Laws.
 
     
 

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