Jeremy Sylestine

As I approach my twentieth year as a practicing attorney, I’m thankful for the nudge I had toward criminal defense during and after law school. I was a first-generation college graduate and finding my own path. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would eventually discover my calling in the courtroom. I began my career as an assistant public defender in the Texas Panhandle, fighting against a system that made it all too easy for good people to become forever entangled in its web. On day one I was trying a felony DWI. By the end of that first week, we had won an acquittal for our client, and the adventures continued from there. Over the next two years, I tried cases to juries and judges at all levels, firmly catching the trial bug. I moved to Austin in 2006 to join the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. During my 15-plus years in that office, I handled thousands of cases and took serious and complicated felony charges to trial. I spent over seven years handing a child abuse and domestic violence caseload. Over my final five years with the office, I served as team lead for the 147th and 427th District Courts, where I supervised court teams and took on the most grave and complicated cases. I have tried dozens of aggravated felonies, including capital murder, murder, aggravated sexual assault, and injury to a child. I left the District Attorney’s Office in 2021 to start my own firm. I enjoy the challenge of defense and the creativity it requires to overcome conventional thinking. I like to tell my clients that I speak Prosecutor. I know what the other side will do and how they’ll approach a case. I use my years of experience as a prosecutor to my clients’ advantage so I can be more prepared than my opponents in trial. I am a husband, father, native Texan, and member of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas. If I’m not working, you’ll find me at a concert, enjoying Austin with my family, coaching one of my three daughters in youth sports, or discovering new parts of the Austin food scene with my wife.

• Partner

• Cofer & Connelly, PLLC (partner)
• Sylestine Law PLLC (owner)
• Travis County District Attorney’s Office (Assistant District Attorney)
• University of Texas School of Law (Adjunct Professor)
• Law Office of Jerod Pingelton (Assistant Public Defender)

• U.S. District Court Western District of Texas