Mike Engelhart has been the Judge of the 151st Civil District Court since January 1, 2009 after being elected in Harris County in November 2008. He was re-elected in 2012 and 2016 and 2020.  A 1995 graduate of The University of Houston Law Center, he was an Associate Editor of the Houston Law Review.  Before that, he earned a BA in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Michigan.  He is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial law, and speaks Spanish fluently.

Judge Engelhart is on the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists (TACTAS), and is on the Board of Directors of Greater Houston Kosher Chili Cookoff, Inc. (a 501(c)(3) organization).  He is also a Fellow of the College of the State Bar of Texas, a frequent CLE speaker, and a certified mediator.  In 2016 he won the University of Houston Law Center Alumni Association “Public Sector Achievement Award,” and the “Trial Judge of the Year” from TACTAS. In 2017, Judge Engelhart was awarded the Franklin Jones Best CLE Article prize by the College of the State Bar of Texas. In 2019, he received the President’s Award from the Houston Bar Association (HBA) for his work as co-chair of the 2019 Civil/Appellate Bench Bar Conference. He has served 2 terms as Civil Administrative Judge of the 24 Civil District Courts of Harris County as well.

He lives in Bellaire with his wife of 26 years, Eva, who is an attorney and a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee.  They have two boys, Joey, 23, a UT graduate, and Zachary, 20, a junior at Texas A&M University.