Latosha Lewis Payne

Judge Latosha Lewis Payne is the Presiding Judge of the 55th Civil District Court in Harris County, Texas. Prior to her election to the bench, she practiced at Am Law 200 international law firms for most of her 18-year law practice. Her complex civil trial practice included but was not limited to environmental, toxic tort, wrongful death, personal injury, real estate/ banking, breach of contract and fraud cases in both state and federal courts. Judge Payne is a former elected Partner of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP n/k/a Foley Lardner and was a Co-Founding Partner of Trahan Dinn Kornegay Payne LLP, a woman-owned civil litigation and insurance coverage law firm.

Judge Payne earned her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2000 and her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Political Science, minor in Philosophy, from Tulane University, H. Sophie Newcomb Women’s College in 1996. She is a Tulane Honors Scholar and a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellow, a post-graduate fellowship to study “Culture and the Development of Women’s Sports” in Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, and Jamaica for a year after college. She was also a D1 scholarship athlete who is the former Tulane record holder and Metro Conference Champion in the Women’s 400 Meter Hurdles.

Judge Payne is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law and has been honored as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and Texas Bar Foundation. She has received many honors, including “Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year” by the Houston Young Lawyers Association.

She served as the Local Administrative Judge for the District Courts in Harris County from January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2025, at a time when 11 district courts were created for the county, including 5 civil courts that had not been created for Harris County in over 41 years.