Dexter Gilford
Director of Civil Rights and Appeals Division
TCDACivilRights@traviscountytx.gov

Dexter has been the Director of the Civil Rights and Appeals Division since 2017.  Dexter Gilford attended the University of Southern California, earning a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance. Mr. Gilford then returned to Texas, where he attended and graduated from the University of Texas School of Law, earning a J.D. degree in 1992.

In 1993, Mr. Gilford returned to his hometown of San Antonio, where he started his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. In 1995, Mr. Gilford left the District Attorney’s Office and went into private practice, where he practiced criminal defense in both states and Federal courts, concentrating on the litigation of capital murder and death penalty cases.

During his years in private practice, Mr. Gilford and his colleagues successfully defended three capital murder cases avoiding the death penalty in each. Between 1999 and 2003, Mr. Gilford earned statewide and national certification as a Board Certified Criminal Law/Criminal Trial Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and the National Board of Trial Advocacy, respectively. While in private practice, Mr. Gilford was an active member in his local criminal defense bar serving as President of the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and as a Director of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

An active speaker on topics relevant to criminal trial practitioners, Mr. Gilford regularly lectured and published papers locally and statewide on issues related to criminal law practice for the local defense bar, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and the State Bar of Texas. In 2005, he was awarded Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year by the Criminal Justice Section of the State Bar of Texas. In 2016, Mr. Gilford earned an M.A. in English and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas.

From 2011 to 2016, Mr. Gilford taught criminal law, criminal justice, and related courses at San Antonio College and the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2018, Dexter Gilford received the NAACP Annual DeWitty/Overton Award.