Judge Godbey was appointed to the Northern District of Texas in 2002. Prior to that, he served two terms as a state civil district judge in Dallas County. Before taking the bench he was in private practice with Hughes & Luce, L.L.P. in Dallas, primarily in technology- related litigation, public law, and appeals. Judge Godbey graduated from Southern Methodist University with degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, and then worked at Texas Instruments as an electrical engineer. He attended the Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review. He then clerked for the Hon. Irving L. Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Godbey was a Master of the Mac Taylor Inn of Court, a Commissioner for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and is a member of the American Law Institute. Judge Godbey is a Registered Patent Attorney, and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is married to Beverly Bell Godbey, a Principal at Amy Stewart Law.