Tess Bussick, Austin Criminal Attorney

Tess Bussick is a criminal defense attorney in the Austin office of Dunham & Jones, where she represents clients charged with felonies and misdemeanors across Central and Southeast Texas. She entered the profession having seen a criminal case from both sides — first inside a district attorney's office, then as a student attorney defending people who could not afford a lawyer — and that sequence shaped the way she practices: with the conviction that the fastest way to a good outcome is to make a prosecutor see the person behind the charge.

Ms. Bussick earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communicative Disorders from the University of Alabama in 2020, studying how people process and produce language — training she still draws on in a practice built largely on listening to clients and translating the legal process back to them in terms they can actually use. She received her Juris Doctor from St. Mary's University School of Law in May 2025.

During law school she interned with the Bexar County District Attorney's Office in the summer of 2024, then spent her 3L year as a student attorney in St. Mary's Criminal Justice Clinic, representing indigent clients in Bexar County. Her clinic record was unusual for a law student: she argued a pretrial motion in a misdemeanor case that the court granted, resulting in the charge being dismissed, and she secured the dismissal of a felony. Alongside her clinic work she served as Treasurer of both the First Generation Law Students organization and the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Licensed in April 2026, Ms. Bussick has already handled more than fifty cases of her own. She appears regularly in Washington, Travis, Austin, and Victoria Counties, and increasingly travels to courts across the state, including San Jacinto and Jefferson Counties. She is a member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Austin Bar Association, and the Austin Young Lawyers Association.

"Our clients are more than the allegations they face," Ms. Bussick says. She approaches every case with an open mind and with empathy, on the understanding that a client who feels genuinely heard is a client who will trust the advice they are given — and that the same understanding, presented to a prosecutor, is often what moves a case.

Originally from Rhode Island, Ms. Bussick has made Austin home. Outside the practice she paints, practices yoga, reads history, spends time with her dog and friends, and works her way through the city's ever-expanding restaurant scene.

Tess Bussick
Criminal Defense Attorney – Dunham & Jones
St. Mary's University School of Law | The University of Alabama
Member, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association | Austin Bar Association | Austin Young Lawyers Association

Tess, Attorney at Law