Emergency? Call Now - The short version. Doyle’s Guide has listed me in the Leading band of its 2026 list, Leading Criminal Defense Lawyers – San Antonio, 2026. Doyle’s Guide states that its rankings are compiled through an independent peer-review methodology and cannot be purchased. I am grateful for it, and I want to be straight with you about exactly what it means and what it does not.
What the list is
Doyle’s Guide publishes ranked listings of lawyers by city and by practice area. Its San Antonio criminal defense listing for 2026 sorts lawyers into three bands: Preeminent, Leading, and Recommended. I am listed in the Leading band.
You can read the list yourself. I would rather you check it than take my word for it: Leading Criminal Defense Lawyers – San Antonio, 2026, at doylesguide.com.
The band above mine is occupied by lawyers whose names anyone who has spent time in the Bexar County Courthouse would recognize, including Gerry Goldstein, Cynthia Eva Hujar Orr, John A. Convery, Michael Gross, and Mark Stevens. I have tried cases in the same courthouse as those lawyers for most of my career. Being listed on the same page as them is not a small thing, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
Why a peer-review list is worth something
Most lawyer rankings a person finds online are advertising. You pay, you appear. Some of them will sell you a plaque for the wall on the same call.
A peer-reviewed listing works differently, and the difference is who is asked. Lawyers know which lawyers actually try cases. Prosecutors know which defense lawyers make them prepare. A ranking built on that is worth more than one built on a credit card, because the people answering the survey have watched the work.
That is the whole of the claim I am making here. Not that I am the best criminal defense lawyer in San Antonio. Nobody can honestly say that, and under the rules governing Texas lawyers I could not say it even if I believed it. What I can tell you is that a group of people who do this work for a living were asked, and my name came back.
What a ranking cannot tell you
Here is the part most law firm announcements leave out.
A ranking is not evidence about your case. It does not know what you are charged with, what the video shows, whether the search was lawful, or what your criminal history looks like. It cannot predict an outcome and neither can I, and any lawyer who tells you otherwise in a first meeting is telling you something important about himself.
A ranking is also not a substitute for the three things you can verify yourself in about five minutes. Is the lawyer Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, which you can look up free by name. Has he actually tried cases to a jury verdict in the county where your case is filed, and how many. And will the lawyer you are paying be the lawyer standing next to you when it matters.
Those three questions will tell you more than any list will. I wrote a longer piece on this, including the eleven questions I think you should ask every lawyer you meet with, including me: how to choose a criminal defense lawyer in San Antonio .
What I would rather be judged on
Recognition is pleasant. Results are the job.
In November 2025 a Bexar County jury returned not-guilty verdicts on every count for three former San Antonio police officers charged in the death of Melissa Perez. I represented Eleazar Alejandro, who faced murder, aggravated assault, and deadly conduct. That case is written up here, with the news coverage cited .
Earlier in 2026 I obtained a full dismissal, before trial, of charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child, and improper relationship between educator and student in Guadalupe County. The lead count alone carried five to ninety-nine years or life and lifetime sex offender registration.
Those outcomes came from reading every page of the file, watching every minute of the video, and finding the proof problem. Not from a listing. The case results page has more, along with an honest account of what a results page can and cannot tell you.
If you need a criminal defense lawyer in Bexar County
Call 210-663-3750 . I answer my own phone. Have the cause number, the court, and the date of your next setting if you have them.
More about my background and certifications , the criminal defense practice , and where I practice .
Recognition
- Listed in the Leading band, Leading Criminal Defense Lawyers – San Antonio, 2026, Doyle’s Guide. Doyle’s Guide states that its rankings are compiled through an independent peer-review methodology and cannot be purchased. .
- Board Certified in Criminal Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
- Board Certified in Criminal Trial Law, National Board of Trial Advocacy.
A listing or ranking by any organization is not a guarantee or prediction of the outcome of any legal matter.