Lauren Marie Cortez, San Antonio Criminal Attorney

Lauren Marie Cortez is a criminal defense attorney in the San Antonio office of Dunham & Jones. She joined the firm as a law clerk in 2026 and became an attorney there after she was licensed to practice law in Texas in October 2026.

Ms. Cortez trained in trial advocacy on the St. Mary's Law National Trial Team, which she led as head captain. Her four-person team won the 2025 Greene Broillet & Wheeler National Civil Trial Competition in Los Angeles. She also reached the semifinals of the 2025 American Association for Justice Trial Advocacy Competition and competed in the 2025 Battle of the Experts National Trial Competition. As treasurer of the law school's Board of Advocates, she directed the 2025 All Star Bracket Challenge and co-directed the 2025 Jimi Derrick Moot Court Competition with the Federal Bar Association.

She earned her Juris Doctor from St. Mary's University School of Law in 2026. She served as president of the Student Bar Association for 2025 to 2026, after two years as a class senator. In 2026 St. Mary's University gave her its Presidential Award, which recognizes students for leadership, service and academic excellence, and she was named to the Order of Barristers. She wrote for the St. Mary's Law Journal and served as vice president of the Juvenile Jurisprudence Association. Her law studies took her abroad twice: to Baylor Law's Academy of the Advocate in St Andrews, Scotland, in 2025, and to the St. Mary's Institute on World Legal Problems at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in 2024.

From 2023 to 2026 Ms. Cortez was a research and teaching assistant at St. Mary's University School of Law. In 2025 she interned at the Victoria City Attorney's Office. She worked as a litigation paralegal at Thomas J. Henry Law in 2023, and in 2019 she interned at the Victoria County District Attorney's Office and at Dornburg Law Criminal Defense Attorneys in Victoria.

Ms. Cortez was born and raised in Victoria, Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government, with a minor in History, from The University of Texas at Austin in 2022, graduating with High Honors as a Distinguished Scholar, then moved to San Antonio for law school. She coached young people in teen adjudication from 2023 to 2026 and has volunteered with Teen Court and with Haven for Hope.

Lauren Marie Cortez
Criminal Defense Attorney - Dunham & Jones
St. Mary's University School of Law | The University of Texas at Austin
Head Captain, St. Mary's Law National Trial Team

Lauren Marie Cortez, Attorney at Law