Simeon Timothy Lake III
How Judge Lake rules, drawn from 24 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Lake
Simeon Timothy Lake, III is a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Judge Lake received a commission on August 12, 1988. Judge Lake assumed senior status on July 5, 2019.
Judge Lake's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Lake, as published on the court's website (checked October 8, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
Key rules
Filing
Serve these procedures and the conference and disclosure order with the summons and complaint or removal papers, then file proof.
“Plaintiff must serve these materials and the Order for Conference and Disclosure of Interested Parties on all defendants with the summons and complaint. A party removing a case to this court has the same obligation as a plaintiff filing an original complaint. Proof reflecting service of these materials must be filed with the Clerk.”
Conferences
Joint continuance motions do not bind the court; it grants them at its discretion.
“Joint motions for continuance are not binding, and they will be granted at the court’s discretion.”
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 8, 2026).
How Judge Lake decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In Kinder Morgan, he distinguished the PSIA’s narrower jurisdictional bar from the FDIC statute and held that the PSIA did not expressly strip district courts of jurisdiction over the constitutional claims.
“Unlike 12 U.S.C. 1818(i)(1), which refers to suspending any order of the FDIC, the PSIA refers only to orders that have been issued by the Department of Labor after a hearing on the record has been held by an ALJ. Therefore, the PSIA does not explicitly strip district courts of their 1331 jurisdiction.”
In an agency-adjudication challenge, he found a substantial likelihood of success under Fifth Circuit precedent holding two layers of for-cause removal protection unconstitutional and granted preliminary relief.
“Because the Fifth Circuit has held that statutory removal restrictions that create two layers of for-cause removal are unconstitutional, Plaintiff has shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.”
Procedural preferences
In an LLC-related dispute, he held that Yaseen Khan lacked standing to sue on the company’s claims and granted summary judgment against Khan.
“Plaintiff Yaseen Khan has no standing to sue, and the defendants are entitled to summary judgment with respect to all claims by Yaseen Khan.”
In Clinton's mortgage-servicing case, Lake considered the complaint's legal sufficiency despite the plaintiff's failure to respond to PennyMac's motion, then granted dismissal with prejudice.
“But Plaintiff's failure to respond is not in itself grounds for granting the motion.”
Cautions
In a Section 2241 case, he dismissed sentence-calculation claims without prejudice because the petitioner had not exhausted administrative remedies.
“The claims challenging the petitioner's sentence calculation contained in the Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Under 28 U.S.C. 2241 are DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE for lack of exhaustion.”
In one premises liability case, Lake granted summary judgment when the plaintiff could not show how long the alleged hazard had been present or that store employees had noticed it.
“There is no evidence that Wal-Mart employees ever noticed any problem with the grill, the shelving, or the manner in which the grill was displayed when completing their daily walk-throughs of the premises.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the Federal Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, or in the Alternative, for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 33) is DENIED”
“Plaintiff's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction (Docket Entry No. 4) is GRANTED. Defendants ... are hereby enjoined from proceeding any further with OALJ case number 2021-PSI-000002”
“The Respondent's Motion to Dismiss and for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 14) is GRANTED.”
“In accordance with the Memorandum Opinion and Order granting Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, this action is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”
“In accordance with the court's Memorandum Opinion and Order granting Defendant Resurgent Capital Services, L.P.'s Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss, this action is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.”
“Plaintiff's Motion for Attorney Fees as Costs (Docket Entry No. 84) is DENIED.”
“Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 86) is DENIED.”
“Defendants' Cross Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 89) is GRANTED.”
“Defendants' Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative Plea in Abatement (Docket Entry No. 92) is DENIED.”
“For the reasons explained above, PennyMac's Motion to Dismiss (Docket Entry No. 9) is GRANTED. This action will be dismissed with prejudice as to PennyMac.”
“Respondents' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 7) is GRANTED”
“Petitioner's Emergency Motion for Leave to File an Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (Docket Entry No. 8), Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and to Show Cause (Docket Entry No. 9), and Petitioner's Supplemental Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Immediate Adjudication of Writ of Habeas Corpus (Docket Entry No. 13) are DENIED.”
“Respondents' Motion to Dismiss (Docket Entry No. 17) is GRANTED”
“Emergency Motion for Immediate Release (Docket Entry No. 2), Emergency Motion to Expedite Habeas Corpus Proceedings (Docket Entry No. 3), Emergency Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Request for Immediate Relief (Docket Entry No. 4), and Emergency Motion for Stay of Removal (Docket Entry No. 5) are DISMISSED for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”
“Respondents' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 5) is GRANTED, and Petitioner's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Docket Entry No. 1) is DENIED.”
“Respondents' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 6) is GRANTED, Petitioner's Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Docket Entry No. 1) is DENIED.”
“Respondents' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 6) is GRANTED, and Petitioner's Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus (Docket Entry No. 1) is DENIED.”
“Respondents' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 5) is GRANTED, and Petitioner's Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Docket Entry No. 1) is DENIED.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Median case duration in the sampled dockets: 348 days (N = 2).
Median motion-to-ruling time: 82 days (N = 1).
- Senior USDJ, Houston Division.
- Recent (2021-2025) newly-assigned docket skews criminal (drug/firearm/fraud) with a smaller set of civil cases: administrative/APA (Kinder Morgan v. DOL 4:25-cv-03651; Kinetica Partners v. Dept. of Interior 4:19-cv-03758), trade secrets (Universal Plant Services v. Adams 4:22-cv-02364), plus the dismissed FLSA (Johnson v. MHMR) and consumer (Woodley v. Resurgent) suits read for the written-orders analysis.
- The mix above is descriptive; this record does not include a quantitative nature-of-suit breakdown.
- Historically he handled the Enron criminal prosecutions (2004-2006).
Pending matters in the official report
Reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act, as of March 31, 2026.
| Motions pending more than six months | 2 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 4 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2026 | 2 | 4 |
| Sep 2025 | 0 | 4 |
| Mar 2025 | 0 | 5 |
| Sep 2024 | 0 | 6 |
| Mar 2024 | 0 | 3 |
| Sep 2023 | 0 | 2 |
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 4 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 10 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 6 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 9 |
| Mar 2021 | 2 | 4 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 1 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
How long civil cases take in this court
For the whole of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, not for Judge Lake: median time from filing to disposition of the civil cases the court closed in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, as reported by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
| Cases | Median time | |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases closed | 5,742 | 7.6 months |
| Closed with no court action | 2,442 | 6 months |
| Closed before pretrial | 2,371 | 7.4 months |
| Closed during or after pretrial | 871 | 11.4 months |
| Closed during trial | 58 | 31.6 months |
| 12 months ending | Cases closed | Median time |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 5,742 | 7.6 months |
| Sep 2024 | 5,086 | 7.5 months |
| Sep 2023 | 4,762 | 7.9 months |
| Sep 2022 | 4,595 | 8.8 months |
| Sep 2021 | 4,745 | 8.8 months |
| Sep 2020 | 5,009 | 8.1 months |
| Sep 2019 | 5,233 | 7.5 months |
The table leaves out prisoner petitions, land condemnations, deportation reviews, recovery of overpayments and enforcement of judgments, and reports no median for fewer than 10 cases. A district that closed a large multidistrict litigation in the period shows very large counts and long medians for that year. Source: Table C-5, U.S. District Courts (spreadsheet).
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