After graduating from law school, Rosenthal completed a one-year
clerkship with Chief Judge
John Robert Brown of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Rosenthal practiced with the
Houston law firm
Baker Botts from 1978 to 1992, becoming a partner in 1985.
Federal judicial service On March 20, 1992, Rosenthal was nominated by President
George H. W. Bush to be a United States district judge of the
United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas to a new seat authorized by 104 Stat. 5089. She was confirmed by the
United States Senate on May 12, 1992, and received her commission on May 13, 1992. and served until November 29, 2022, one day before she turned 70. She assumed
senior status on December 1, 2024. The committee supervises the rule-making process in the federal courts and oversees and coordinates the work of the Advisory Committees on the Federal Rules of Evidence and of Civil, Criminal, Bankruptcy and Appellate Procedure. Prior to 2007, Rosenthal was a member, then chair, of the Judicial Conference
Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist appointed her to that committee in 1996, and as chair in 2003. Under her tenure, the discovery rules were amended to address the impact of changes in information technology in 2006. In 2007, the entire set of civil rules was edited to be clearer and simpler without changing substantive meaning. The work clarifying and simplifying the rules used in the trial courts won the committee the 2007 "Reform in Law" Award from the Burton Awards for Legal Achievement, an award issued with the
Library of Congress and the Law Library of Congress. ==Law reform==