Hon. E. Scott Frost, former United States Magistrate Judge, was raised in Eastland, Texas, is a graduate of Angelo State University, and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the Texas Tech University School of Law in December 1987.
Upon graduation, Frost began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Sam R. Cummings, United States District Judge in Lubbock. Following the completion of his clerkship, he joined the Fort Worth law firm of McLean, Sanders, Price, Head & Ellis (now Brackett & Ellis), where he was involved in general civil litigation. In 1990, he returned to Lubbock and began his tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney.
In that capacity, Frost was primarily responsible for defending civil cases filed against the federal government in the Lubbock, Abilene, and San Angelo areas. The majority of his caseload consisted of employment matters, personal injury and medical malpractice cases, civil rights claims, and general commercial litigation, as well as the representation of federal creditors in Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy proceedings. In over twenty years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Frost tried numerous bench and jury trials in federal district court and argued several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He also served as the Professional Responsibility Officer for the Northern District of Texas, was a long-time evaluator for the Department of Justice Evaluation and Review Staff and was a frequent instructor at the Department’s National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina.
On June 16, 2011, Frost was sworn in as United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Texas, where he presided over civil and criminal cases in the Abilene and San Angelo divisions. In 2016, he was nominated by the President to become United States District Judge but did not receive a Senate vote on confirmation prior to a change in administrations.
As part of the confirmation process, Frost received a “Unanimously Well Qualified Rating” from the American Bar Association, which utilizes a peer-review process to achieve impartial evaluations of the integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament of nominees for the federal judiciary, without consideration of a nominee’s philosophy or ideology.
Based upon his three decades of public service, Frost was honored by the Texas Tech Law Alumni Association as the 2018 recipient of the Daniel H. Benson Public Service Award, recognizing his significant and substantial contributions to furthering ideals of public service in the law.
After completing his eight-year term as federal magistrate judge, Frost returned to Lubbock and joined Richards, Elder & Gibson in 2019, bringing his extensive litigation experience to legal issues relating to the firm’s utility clientele. His practice also includes representation in general civil matters, with an emphasis on employment litigation in the federal court system.
