Robert Roy ‘Robert’ Cowie, Fort Worth Criminal Attorney

Robert Roy 'Robert' Cowie is a criminal defense attorney in the Fort Worth office of Dunham & Jones, where he handles felony cases in Tarrant, Johnson, and many other counties. Much of his career has been spent defending people charged with capital murder.

From 2008 until March 2021, Mr. Cowie worked at the Regional Public Defender's Office for Capital Cases. He began as a mitigation investigator, served as Chief Mitigation Investigator from 2012 to 2013, and later became an Assistant Public Defender. That work covered every phase of capital litigation, from life-history investigation to jury selection and sentencing, including work with mental-health professionals on competency and intellectual disability.

Mr. Cowie has been lead counsel in one death penalty capital murder trial and one non-death capital murder trial, and second or third chair in two other death penalty cases. He has also tried more than 40 felony jury trials, almost all first-degree felonies, and has handled hundreds more cases.

His Bachelor of Arts in Zoology from the University of Wyoming (1995) and Master of Science in Biology from Southwest Texas State University (1999) gave him a working understanding of DNA and other forensic evidence. He earned his Juris Doctor from Texas Tech University School of Law in 2003.

Mr. Cowie directed the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association's Forensics Seminar from 2005 to 2011 and again from 2022 to 2025, and he has taught capital defense programs for the Center for American and International Law.

Mr. Cowie grew up in Wyoming and moved to Texas in 1996. He lived in Lubbock for 19 years, and most of his Texas family is from the Metroplex.

Robert Roy 'Robert' Cowie
Criminal Defense Attorney - Dunham & Jones
Texas Tech University School of Law | University of Wyoming
Former Assistant Public Defender, Regional Public Defender's Office for Capital Cases

Robert Roy 'Robert' Cowie, Attorney at Law