SAN ANTONIO – An attorney who worked more than 20 years in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office has been chosen to be the next associate judge in the Bexar County Children’s Court.
Kimberly Burley will be first woman and the first Black to preside in that court. She will replace retired associate judge Richard Garcia after a unanimous vote by Bexar County civil district court judges.
”I’m still overwhelmed,” Burley said Thursday about her selection.
Burley said her 23 years of working in the DA’s Office will serve her well on the bench.The bulk of her assignments focused on child welfare advocacy.
“I’ve evolved from someone who seeks more termination to someone who’s really looking at how we can reunify those families and put them back together at all costs,” Burley said. ”You have to validate their frustrations, their feelings and their trauma and work through it to try to put these families back together.”
Burley said the key to reuniting families is inclusion.
”One of my goals is to make everyone feel a buy in and to feel like they’re invested in this process,” she said.
Burley will begin trying to make those goals a reality when she is officially sworn in later this month.
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