Adele

Dan Hedges and Adele Hedges. Photo: John Everett

Adele Hedges, a former chief justice of Houston’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals who married into one of the first couples to work at a large Texas law firm, died of cancer on Wednesday. She was 70.

Hedges was born and raised in Orange and later attended the University of Houston Law Center. While in law school, she met Dan Hedges, who was on an opposing team at a Texas moot court competition in 1973. Dan Hedges recalled he was so “dazzled” by Adele that his University of Texas School of Law team lost.

The couple met again in 1974 when they both started as associates at Fulbright & Jaworski, now Norton Rose Fulbright, in Houston. Their relationship bloomed, and they married in 1976.

“We were the first married couple in a large traditional law firm that were allowed to stay,’’ Dan Hedge said.

Both practiced at Fulbright for a few years, but Adele Hedges left in 1978 to become general counsel of a real estate company. Dan Hedges left in 1981 to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. After he left his federal job in 1985, Dan Hedges joined Houston’s Porter & Clements, which became Porter & Hedges in 1993. The couple shared a workplace for a few years when Adele Hedges worked at Porter & Clements as an of counsel before she was elected to the First Court of Appeals in Houston in 1992.

In a 2015 interview, Adele Hedges told Texas Lawyer that she and her husband were able to build successful legal careers because they supported each other and focused on their relationship, family and shared interests. “We are best friends,” Adele Hedges said.

After serving as a justice on the First Court for 11 years, Adele Hedges was appointed chief justice of Houston’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals by Gov. Rick Perry in 2003.

Hedges helped oversee the restoration of Harris County’s 1910-era courthouse, which houses the First and the Fourteenth Courts of Appeals. She retired from the bench and entered private practice in 2013.

“I think one of the things she was proudest of was her efforts in connection with the restoration of the 1910 Harris County Courthouse,” Dan Hedges said. “Without her, I don’t think that would have happened.’’

Dan Hedges retired from his firm last year and the couple planned to keep an apartment in Houston while spending more time at their home in Hanover, New Hampshire. The Hedges recently completed the renovation of an energy-efficient home located near the Connecticut River.

“She did get to go up there a couple of times to the house and enjoy it,’’ Dan Hedges said. She is also survived by her son, Clinton.