Greenwell was first elected District Judge of the 319th District Court in Nueces County in 2002, becoming the first Republican ever to win a county-wide judicial race in Nueces County. Greenwell was overwhelmingly re-elected to the Court in 2006, and was elected to his third term, without opposition, in 2010.
Judge Greenwell is a 1981 honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. Greenwell received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with a double major in journalism and political science, from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1978. He served as a staff attorney on the 13th Court of Appeals beginning in 1981 and was chief of the Court’s legal staff from 1991 to 1996. Greenwell was in private practice from 1997 until his election to the District Court bench in 2002.
Judge Greenwell served two years as the Presiding Administrative District Judge of Nueces County. In addition to presiding over the 319th District Court, Greenwell currently presides over Nueces County’s newly created Veteran’s Court.