Steve Bickerstaff

Steve Bickerstaff (born April 15, 1946) is a professor of law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin, Texas. In February, 2007, the University of Texas Press published his book Lines in the Sand. The book covers the history of the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting and its aftermath.^[1][2][3] Bickerstaff is also a coauthor of International Election Principles (2009), and the author of two other books and over 25 legal articles. He is considered an expert on redistricting and other election law issues.

Bickerstaff attended the University of Texas at Austin (BA, 1968) and the University of Texas School of Law (JD). He was on active duty as a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force (1971-1973). He served as Parliamentarian of the Senate of Texas (1975-1976) after serving as a counsel for the Texas Constitutional Convention (1974) and the Texas Constitutional Revision Commission (1973). Beginning in 1976, he served as an assistant attorney general of Texas. In 1980, he formed the private law firm of Bickerstaff, Heath and Smiley. The law firm grew to 50 attorneys and was at one time probably the largest women-owned law firm in the nation. Bickerstaff became of counsel to the firm in 1998 and retired in 2001. The law firm (now Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado, Acosta)^[4] continues as a prominent Texas firm. As a private attorney, Bickerstaff was involved primarily in public policy litigation. Among his many cases over thirty years was litigation involving jail overcrowding, public school finance, congressional, state and local government redistricting, election contests, environmental protection and telecommunications competition. One of his cases resulted in the largest monetary judgment ($203 million) ever awarded against the State of Texas. After leaving the law firm, Bickerstaff focused on teaching and writing. He had begun teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Law School in 1992. In 1998-1999, he taught full-time at the law school. During the early 2000s he taught and lectured at several universities in Europe. He was a Fulbright Foundation Scholar, a Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Residence at the foundation’s Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy, a member of a Carter Commission team advising on election issues in China, and a lecturer at the London School of Economics. An endowed scholarship was created in his name at the University of Texas Law School by his former law firm.

In 2005, Bickerstaff wrote a letter praising Alberto Gonzales for the United States Attorney General confirmation hearings. However, in light of the U.S. Attorney General's dismissal controversy, he publicly called for Gonzales's resignation.^[5]

In 2010, Bickerstaff wrote and spoke about campaign finance issues.^[6][7] In November, 2010 he was an expert witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial against former congressman Tom DeLay ^[8] and authored an editorial urging that the conviction was appropriate.^[9][10]

Recently Bickerstaff authored and championed a charter amendment creating an independent redistricting commission for the city of Austin, Texas. In 2014 he published an article "Making Local Redistricting Less Political: Independent Redistricting Commissions for Cities" in the Election Law Journal.^[11]

Bickerstaff's environmental, educational, community, and corporate involvement has included the National Council of the National Parks Conservation Association, the Board of Directors of the Trustees for Alaska, the Board of Visitors for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, the Chancellor's Council of the University of Texas and Dean's Roundtable of the University of Texas School of Law, the Board of Directors of the Marfa Public Radio Corporation, and the Board of Trustees of Corporate Systems, Inc.

Bickerstaff has two daughters and three granddaughters.

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