“My dad started calling me that when I was two days old. It’s just a nickname -- a lot of people in Louisiana have nicknames.”

When asked about the name by which he is known, Judge Harlin D. “Cooter” Hale’s response provides a strong clue about how important his rural roots are to his character and lifestyle.

Although he was born across the Mississippi River in Natchez, Miss., Judge Hale grew up in the small town of St. Joseph, La. His father was a cotton farmer on essentially the same land that his father’s family had farmed. Many of the traits learned in his childhood, such as the value of hard work and rising early in the morning, are still apparent in his description of his career and routine.

His father provided his first exposure to lawyers by taking Judge Hale to a robbery trial as part of real-life civics lesson. There was a robbery trial in his parish, “and my dad let me stay out of school in the third grade and took me to the trial,” Judge Hale recalls. His father knew the district attorney and Judge Hale says he was “simply fascinated” by the trial and he still remembers the experience.

An avid reader and athlete in high school, he was the valedictorian of his class and attended Louisiana State University, the only school to which he applied. At LSU, Judge Hale was president of his fraternity, studied math and was interested in education.

“I came from a very modest background, so even though I was in a fraternity, I had to work all through college,” he recalls.

Judge Hale first considered law school during his junior year after hearing the plans of an enthusiastic friend at LSU. Judge Hale attended law school at LSU where he was Order of the Coif and an editor on Law Review.

Judge Hale was influenced by a clerkship for Justice James L. Dennis of the Louisiana Supreme Court -- now on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals -- remembering that “that year made me think that one day I would want to be a judge.”

“Judge Dennis is extremely hard-working, and that really rubbed off on me,” Judge Hale says. Judge Dennis’s clerks worked much harder than the other clerks in the courthouse, but that was a good experience for Judge Hale who admits, “I still have some of those traits now.”

His strong work ethic and legal abilities during a successful career at Strasburger & Price, and subsequently at a small boutique firm founded with several young lawyers, helped him develop into an expert in the field of bankruptcy law and as a trustworthy attorney. He also became known for the crawfish boils he held each year that eventually outgrew his backyard and had to move to Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake.

Judge Hale’s last two years in private practice were spent as regional partner in charge of the bankruptcy practice at Baker & McKenzie in Dallas. On November 1, 2002, he was appointed as a U.S. bankruptcy judge.

The Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Texas was one of the first in the country to adopt mandatory electronic filing in 2003 and it has dramatically changed his practice. The new bankruptcy law of 2005 has increased the workload of the court tremendously, providing Judge Hale with a 100-item docket at some times. He also travels to Wichita Falls once a month to preside over that division of the court. He attributes his success in keeping up with his docket and caseload to Jan Houchin, his judicial assistant who has more than 30 years of experience in her role and who Judge Hale describes as “probably the most experienced person over here at the courthouse,” and Rob Colwell, the “world’s greatest law clerk,” according to Judge Hale. “When you have people like that who work with you, it makes life a lot easier,” Judge Hale admits.

His hobbies and interests include playing tennis near his home in Lakewood and biking and sailing at White Rock Lake. Of course, he manages to attend a few LSU games a year in Baton Rouge, where his family has held the same football season tickets for 41 years.

He previously enjoyed coaching sports and school activities for his two sons who recently left for college. As he proudly discusses his sons and their work ethic (the oldest attends George Washington University and the youngest is at LSU), it becomes clear that he and his wife Claire have instilled lessons from their modest upbringing into their children.