Loud and proud of his Texas roots, Bryan Wilson was born and raised in Fort Worth. After graduating from Paschal High School, he earned his B.B.A. in Finance at Texas A&M University. From there, he enrolled in the Texas Tech University School of Law to pursue his passion for the law and his dream of becoming a trial attorney. Bryan graduated in the top 7% of his law school class with the highest honors of summa cum laude. He was honored to accept invitations into the Order of the Coif and Phi Kappa Phi, and he made the Dean’s List every semester. Bryan received an award for earning the highest grade in the entire class in the following subjects: Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiations; Tax Practice and Procedure; and Property. In law school, his professors marked him as one of the top performing students by giving him a “Distinction Award” in the following classes: Income Taxation, Texas Criminal Procedure, and White Collar Crime.
During law school, Bryan also excelled in extracurricular activities outside the classroom. Embracing Texas Tech Law’s nationally recognized advocacy program, he honed his skills by competing in intra-school and inter-school advocacy competitions in all three years. One top accomplishment of note was serving as the team leader for an international negotiation competition in Athens, Greece. His focus on advocacy earned him membership in the Texas Tech Law School Board of Barristers, where he began judging advocacy competitions and training future competitors. His aggressive advocacy tactics in law school led his peers to nickname him the Texas Law Hawk. A member of Texas Tech Law Review, Bryan maintained his focus on criminal law by writing his comment on the Confrontation Clause as it applies to body-worn cameras worn by police. This research gives him a definitive edge on Texas evidentiary issues likely to arise in criminal courts.
In addition to academic and extracurricular activities, Bryan has a range of practical experience as well. Before law school, Bryan worked for a criminal defense and personal injury firm in Fort Worth. After his first year of law school, he interned for two criminal court judges in Tarrant County. Bryan accepted a summer associate position at McDonald Sanders, PC after his second year of law school. He also interned with a United States Attorney’s Office (federal prosecutors), as well as a state prosecutor’s office, where he prosecuted misdemeanors while he awaited bar exam results. But, his favorite experience yet was his externship with the Fort Worth Federal Public Defender’s Office, where he applied all of his hard-earned skills to successfully defend those accused of federal crimes. His diverse experiences in criminal law have established his skill in handling criminal proceedings against his clients.
Bryan is licensed as an attorney and counselor at law and has been admitted to practice in state courts by the Supreme Court of Texas. He follows the longstanding principle that everyone deserves a fair trial. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, reading humor, and watching his role models, Judge Judy and Stephen Colbert. To give back to his community and his undergraduate alma mater, he has also judged advocacy competitors at Texas A&M School of Law in Fort Worth.
Recently, Fort Worth, Texas Magazine selected Bryan as a 2015 Top Attorney of Tarrant County in Criminal Law with under five years of practice; he also received the same award in 2014. In January of 2016, Above the Law honored Bryan with the 2015 Lawyer of the Year award for showing “the world that yes, lawyers can have a sense of humor.”
