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Chris Lewis & Associates: Nearly 300 Jury Trials and a Football Player’s Instinct for a Fight

Before he was a Dallas criminal defense attorney, Chris Lewis was a four-year college football starter who went on to become an NFL-certified contract advisor. That combination of competitiveness and negotiation instinct shows up in how he describes his own practice: nearly 300 jury trials since founding his firm in 2004, a headline role in an almost-$100-million civil verdict, and a caseload split between serious criminal defense and personal injury litigation. This profile is part of Awesome Attorneys’ coverage of Dallas DWI attorney options.

At a Glance

Origin & Background

Chris Lewis graduated magna cum laude from Evangel University with a double major in government and psychology, then earned his J.D. from Baylor Law School in 1997 and was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1998. He began his legal career as an assistant district attorney in multiple Texas counties before moving to civil litigation at a premier trial firm, then founded Chris Lewis & Associates, P.C. in 2004. He is not Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in any specialty — a distinction Awesome Attorneys notes because roughly a dozen other Dallas criminal defense and DWI attorneys profiled in this directory do hold that certification, and it is a meaningfully different credential from the peer-nomination awards (Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers) Lewis has accumulated instead.

Dallas DWI Attorney Practice Concentration

The firm maintains dedicated, substantively built-out practice pages for both criminal defense — federal crimes, sex crimes, white-collar and financial crimes, drug and gun charges, violent crimes, probation violations, and juvenile law — and DWI defense, covering field-sobriety and breathalyzer challenges, ignition interlock requirements, and license-suspension consequences, across Dallas and several surrounding North Texas cities. The firm also runs a substantial personal injury practice (car, truck, and motorcycle accidents, wrongful death), which is outside the scope of this profile.

Track Record

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. The firm’s headline results are civil verdicts rather than criminal case dispositions; Awesome Attorneys could not independently verify the $100 million figure or the wrongful-death ranking against court records or the cited publications directly, and presents them as the firm’s own claims.

Client Voice

Lewis holds 19 reviews on his individual Avvo profile spanning Criminal Defense, DUI/DWI, and several other categories. A representative positive review, from a client whose spouse Lewis represented:

“Chris is intelligent, incredibly hard-working, zealous, and, sometimes, downright scary. He commands the respect of all of his peers… Whenever my husband saw Chris at court, my husband would light up and feel encouraged because he ‘felt safe.’” — client review, published on firm site

Consistent with this publication’s disclosure policy, not every review is favorable. One review on Avvo describes a client experience in which Lewis “stood down in his representation” of the reviewer and states the reviewer’s belief that Lewis misrepresented the existence of a government sentencing offer during the case. Awesome Attorneys could not independently verify the substance of this dispute and is relaying it as the reviewer’s account, not a confirmed finding; it is a serious enough allegation, however, that a prospective client should weigh it alongside the firm’s largely positive review record.

Beyond the Courtroom

Lewis serves on the Board of Directors of the White Rhino Coffee Foundation and is a Life Fellow of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation, having previously served on that organization’s Board of Directors (2004–2006). He is a member of the William “Mac” Taylor Inn of Court and the Judge Sarah T. Hughes North Texas Federal Criminal Law American Inn of Court, both mentorship-oriented trial-bar organizations, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Recognition

Lewis has been named to Best Lawyers in America every year from 2019 to 2025 and inducted into D Magazine’s Best Lawyers in Dallas Hall of Fame (2023) after 17 consecutive years (2009–2025) on that list. He has also been a Texas Super Lawyer (Texas Monthly) for 2013–2025 and named to Texas Monthly’s Top 100 Attorneys in Texas (2020) and Top 100 in Dallas/Fort Worth (2021–2022). These are established, peer-nomination-based recognitions, but — as noted above — none of them is the same as Texas Board of Legal Specialization board certification, and this profile does not use the word “specialist” to describe Lewis for that reason.

Texas Legal Backdrop

A first DWI in Texas is a Class B misdemeanor under Texas Penal Code § 49.04 (3 to 180 days in jail, a fine up to $2,000); a second is a Class A misdemeanor, and a third is a third-degree felony (2 to 10 years in prison). Refusing a breath or blood test after a DWI arrest triggers an automatic one-year license suspension, separate from any suspension tied to a conviction, and a driver has 15 days from arrest to contest an administrative license suspension under Texas Transportation Code Chapters 524 and 724. On the firm’s broader criminal defense side, federal cases prosecuted in the Northern, Eastern, or Western Districts of Texas — where Lewis is admitted to practice — follow the federal sentencing guidelines rather than the Texas Penal Code’s state-court structure, a distinction that matters for the federal criminal defense matters the firm also handles.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Chris Lewis brings a genuinely deep trial résumé — nearly 300 jury trials, a multi-year run on Best Lawyers in America and D Magazine’s Hall of Fame, and headline civil verdicts that speak to real courtroom skill — to a firm with dedicated, well-developed DWI and criminal defense practice pages covering the full range of Dallas-area cities. The absence of Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification is worth naming directly: it doesn’t mean Lewis lacks expertise, but it is a different, less rigorously vetted form of recognition than the board certification held by many other attorneys in this directory’s Dallas Criminal Defense and DWI categories, and prospective clients comparing options should understand the distinction.

The negative Avvo review alleging misrepresentation about a sentencing offer is a serious claim that this profile could not verify one way or the other. Set against 18 other reviews that are largely positive and a long, well-documented peer-recognition record, one unverified negative account is not disqualifying — but it’s the kind of specific claim worth raising directly with the firm before retaining them, particularly for anyone whose case may turn on plea-negotiation communications.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from Chris Lewis & Associates’ own website (lewisdefense.com, including its Chris Lewis biography, DWI, and general practice-area pages), Christopher Whitener Lewis’s Avvo attorney profile and client reviews, and cross-referenced honors claims (Best Lawyers, D Magazine, Texas Monthly, Texas Lawyer/VerdictSearch) as described on the firm’s own site. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Penal Code and Texas Transportation Code. No case results, credentials, honors, or quotes were invented; the $100 million verdict figure, wrongful-death ranking, and all client reviews are attributed to their original source and identified as claims where independent verification was not possible.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Chris Lewis & Associates, P.C. prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placements clearly labeled as such, but no payment of any kind determines inclusion in, or the content of, this editorial profile. This article is for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader and Chris Lewis & Associates or Awesome Attorneys.