Office of Governor
John Scott, right, is sworn in by the governor on Wednesday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday appointed Fort Worth attorney and former Secretary of State John Scott to serve as interim attorney general in place of Ken Paxton, who was suspended from his office following his impeachment in the state House of Representatives.
Paxton is awaiting a trial in the state Senate.
“John Scott has the background and experience needed to step in as a short-term interim attorney general during the time the Attorney General has been suspended from duty,” Abbott said in a statement. “He served under me in the Texas Attorney General’s Office and knows how the Office of the Attorney General operates.”
Scott was the deputy attorney general for civil litigation, including overseeing more than 22,000 lawsuits involving Texas.
“His decades of experience and expertise in litigation will help guide him while serving as the state’s top law enforcement officer. I appoint John Scott for this role based on the Texas Constitution to serve for a temporary period during the Texas Senate’s resolution of the impeachment proceedings.”
Scott was appointed the first chief operating officer of the Health and Human Services Commission. He oversaw the overhaul of the agency, its 56,000 employees, and its over $50 billion biannual budget.
After returning to private practice, Abbott appointed Scott as the chairman of the board for the Department of Information Resources.
According to the governor’s office, Scott has successfully tried more than 100 lawsuits and has experience handling cases at the United States Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Texas, United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits, almost all Texas Courts of Appeals, United States District Court for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western District Courts of Texas, Texas state courts, and the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
The courtroom victories include the successful defense of an HMO, which the National Law Journal declared the U.S. Healthcare Victory of the Year. Scott lives in Fort Worth and has offices in Austin.