Forensic-Trained Texas DWI & Criminal Defense
Overview
Deandra Grant Law is a Texas DWI, criminal, and federal defense firm. For more than 30 years we have defended clients across North and Central Texas, with over 500 cases tried to verdict. Our practice is deliberately limited to DWI and serious criminal defense, because the forensic depth and courtroom experience these cases demand cannot be developed by a firm that takes every case that walks in the door.
How We Got Here
Deandra Grant started on the other side of these cases. She joined the Dallas County District Attorney's Office as an assistant district attorney in January 1994, and her focus there was DWI prosecution. By 1995 she had decided she belonged on the defense side, and she founded the firm that year. The evidence in these cases is scientific, so she trained for it, earning a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Science and a Graduate Certificate in Forensic Toxicology from the University of Florida, then passing the American Chemical Society's CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist examination as the first attorney in Texas to do so. In 2011 she began writing The Texas DWI Manual for James Publishing, and it is now a standard reference for attorneys defending DWI cases in this state. More than thirty years on, the firm she founded defends DWI, criminal, and federal cases from six offices across North and Central Texas.
What Sets Us Apart
Every criminal defense firm in Texas will tell you it offers personalized attention, protects your rights, and fights hard for you. That is not a differentiator. The question worth asking is more specific: what does this firm know that other firms do not, and what can its attorneys do in your case that a generalist cannot? Here is the honest answer.
01 Forensic Lawyer-Scientists on Staff
Managing Partner Deandra M. Grant and Partner Douglas E. Huff both hold the ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist designation from the American Chemical Society, a credential only a handful of Texas attorneys carry. It is not honorary. It requires demonstrated competency in the forensic chemistry behind the State's evidence: gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, blood alcohol pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and the laboratory standards that govern how that evidence is produced. In practice, it means that when we review a blood alcohol result we read the raw laboratory data (the chromatogram, the calibration curve, the internal standard performance, the quality control records), not the summary report handed to most defense attorneys. A chemistry-level challenge is something a prosecutor cannot simply deflect.
02 Graduate-Level Science Training
Deandra Grant holds a Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Science and a Graduate Certificate in Forensic Toxicology: graduate coursework in pharmacokinetics, analytical chemistry, and toxicology, not weekend continuing-education certificates. That training applies directly to the cases clients bring us. It lets the firm challenge retrograde extrapolation at the pharmacokinetic level in a DWI case, evaluate a laboratory's identification and quantification of a controlled substance at the chemistry level in a drug case, and separate the mere presence of a drug from actual impairment in a DUID case.
03 A Trained SFST Instructor
Deandra Grant is a trained Standardized Field Sobriety Test instructor who administers and grades the ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist and DUIDLA board certification examinations. When she cross-examines an officer about field sobriety testing, she does so as someone who trains and grades other practitioners on the same tests, down to the NHTSA stimulus speed, the four-second hold requirement, and the specific protocol deviations that undermine a result. That cross-examination goes to the science, not merely whether the officer was certified.
04 Federal Criminal Defense Capability
Of Counsel James Lee Bright brings more than 25 years of federal criminal trial experience and is admitted to practice in all four Texas federal districts (the Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western), as well as the District of Columbia, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Federal practice is a fundamentally different world from state court: the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, mandatory minimums, the grand jury process, and the cooperation dynamics that drive federal resolutions all demand specific federal experience. Having that capability in-house, from pre-indictment strategy through trial and appeal, is something most North Texas firms cannot offer.
05 Digital Forensics
Partner Douglas E. Huff completed advanced digital forensics training, covering cell phone data extraction, call detail records, IP attribution, metadata analysis, and the authentication requirements for digital evidence. Text messages, social media records, location data, and financial transactions are the evidentiary backbone of most fraud, theft, sex offense, and trafficking cases. We evaluate that evidence at the technical level rather than accepting the prosecution's characterization of it.
06 17 Published Law Books
Deandra Grant has authored 17 published law books, including The Texas DWI Manual, the definitive practitioner reference for DWI defense in Texas, along with A First Offender's Guide to Texas Criminal Courts, Assault Charges in Texas, and Arrested for Drugs in Texas. Publishing authoritatively for an audience of other legal professionals is one of the clearest signals that a firm's knowledge in a practice area is genuine rather than general.
07 Around-the-Clock Availability
An arrest does not wait for business hours, and neither does the 15-day deadline to request an ALR hearing. Our intake is answered 24/7, every day of the year. Call at midnight, or over a holiday weekend, and you will get a response, not a voicemail.
Our Practice
Deandra Grant Law limits its practice to DWI, criminal, and federal defense. That focus is deliberate. An attorney who handles every type of case cannot develop the depth of forensic science knowledge, courtroom experience, and legal specialization that DWI and serious criminal defense demand. Every attorney here is here because they chose this work, not because it was assigned to them.
Every case begins with the same question: what does the State's evidence actually show, and how was it obtained? For a DWI case, that means an independent review of the breath or blood test result, the SFST administration, the stop, and the arrest. For a drug case, it means an independent review of the laboratory methodology, the weight determination, and the chain of custody. For a violent crime case, it means a rigorous examination of the evidence, the complaining witness's credibility, and the lawfulness of the search and seizure.
Credentials at a Glance
Meet Our Attorneys
The firm's credential stack is carried by the attorneys who built it.
Our Offices
We serve clients from six offices across North and Central Texas: Dallas, Fort Worth, Allen, Denton, Waco, and Rockwall.
Beyond the Courtroom
A criminal defense practice is not the only thing this firm does. We fund a scholarship for people rebuilding after a setback and an annual grant for animal rescues, we run a dachshund rescue out of our own homes, and once a year we put on a criminal law seminar that pays for it.
DGL Second Chances College Scholarship
A $1,000 award for students who have overcome real obstacles and are pursuing higher education, usable for tuition or any other educational expense. Applications close 1 February each year.
Scholarship DetailsWrigley's Animal Rescue Grant
A $2,500 annual grant to one animal rescue organization in the United States or Canada, awarded every February 16 in Wrigley's honor. Applications are open year round.
Grant DetailsFurry Friends
Living the Doxie Dream is our rescue and sanctuary, a non-profit dedicated to saving dachshunds across Texas. Meet the pack that runs the office, and the dogs still looking for a home.
Meet the PackDog Days of Summer Seminar
Our annual advanced criminal law seminar for Texas practitioners. The 2025 event raised $10,000 for the Living the Doxie Dream Rescue & Sanctuary.
Seminar DetailsCharged With a Crime?
Intake is answered 24/7 for all six Texas offices. If your case is one we can take on, we schedule a free consultation with an attorney.
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