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Travis County Court Administrator Warren Vavra has announced he will retire in early 2026.
If you’re a lawyer who has done work in Travis County, you’ve likely interacted with Warren – and remember him.
“He’s always well-dressed, he’s a smart lawyer, but he sounds like he just got out of a pickup truck after tending to the horses,” said Travis County Local Administrative District Judge Amy Clark Meachum.
“I’ve heard him described as a ‘metro-redneck,’” said Jacob Stokes, Director of Court Management for Travis County.
As the court administrator, Warren’s job entails scheduling cases for Travis County’s central docket – a job that requires delicate handling of lawyers’ and judges’ often conflicting personalities, said family law attorney Keith Maples.
“He has a tough job,” said family law attorney John Barrett of Coble Law & Mediation. “He has to get lawyers and judges in front of each other and have them all stay sort of happy. I’d be in the penitentiary if I had his job.”
Warren, however, is especially suited for this role, with 419th District Judge Catherine Mauzy calling him both “the lawyer whisperer” and “the judge whisperer.”
“He loves his job,” said Justice Gisela Triana, who served as the 200th District Court Judge in Travis County for 14 years before taking the Third Court of Appeals bench. “And he’s good at his job. He loves helping the litigants and the lawyers. To still take such great pride in doing it right after 30 years is really incredible.”
In his 30 years of service to the Courts, Warren has worked with approximately 85 different judges and probably thousands of different lawyers.
“Very few people, in their legal careers, can say they have had such an impact on the profession as Warren has,” said Judge Meachum. “The courthouse just won’t be the same without him.”
Warren is a 1992 graduate of Baylor Law School. He has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1993. He has been a member of the Austin Bar since 1996 and speaks regularly at Austin Bar and AYLA events – most recently at the 2025 Bench Bar Conference.
According to Warren, his time working for the Travis County Civil District Judges came about purely by chance. In the Spring of 1995, he was an Assistant General Counsel at the State Bar of Texas when Jim McCormick, then the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, sent him along with Joseph C. Parker, Jr., to El Paso, Texas, to try a famous reinstatement case. According to Warren, “the ink wasn’t even dry on my bar card, and about all I was qualified to do was carry the trial cases for Mr. Parker.” The judge appointed to hear the case in El Paso was none other than Judge Pete Lowry, the Senior Civil District Judge from Austin. Less than a year later, Judge Lowry hired Warren as his Staff Attorney in January of 1996. “If that’s not serendipity, then I don’t know what is.”
When reflecting on the last 30 years Warren states, “I thought I was going to be a trial lawyer, but that’s not the way my life worked out. This was the perfect job for me, it gave me purpose, it energized me, and it made me feel like I was making a difference, like I was taking care of people and helping them. Now, of course, I realize my career worked out just like it was supposed to. I’m so grateful to all the judges, the lawyers, and all the incredibly dedicated staff members who made this such a rewarding and satisfying job for me. I can’t thank them enough.”