Judge Jeannine Barr is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond Louisiana . She received her Bachelors of Arts in English and Journalism Education in 1981 and taught high school English for a short period before attending law school at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge. She graduated from law school in 1985 and moved to Houston where she began her legal career at the Harris County District Attorneys Office. She served as an Assistant District Attorney from 1986 until 1994 and achieved the level of Chief Prosecutor . During that time she prosecuted hundreds of cases including nine capital murder cases.She was first elected to the 182nd District Court bench in November of 1994 and was re-elected in 1998, 2002, and 2006. During her tenure as judge she has created a unique community service program for offenders who are placed on probation with physical limitations. If deemed unable to do outdoor community service ( such as trash pick up or something similar), Judge Barr has a quilting project wherein probationers sew quilts in a dedicated space outside her courtroom and those quilts are then distributed to children at Texas Children's Hospital and MD Anderson to aid them during chemotherapy or other treatments. This project has been in existence since 1996 and is still going strong.
She was named Judge of the year in 2001 by the Houston Police Officers Union and has been endorsed by numerous organizations throughout the years.
Judge Barr has served as a guest speaker at local high schools, law schools, and legal seminars.
Judge Barr is licensed to practice law in Texas and Louisiana.
She is married to Jim Barr and in her free time enjoys participating in community theatre, traveling, and singing.