U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade has sat on so many benches in Dallas County during the course of his 36-year legal career, it’s hard to imagine he ever was a lawyer.

The son of a Baptist minister, Kinkeade headed off to Baylor University in the early 1970s and earned a J.D. in 1974, thanks to an unusual program that allowed students to attend law school before completing an undergraduate degree.