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Hines Ranc & Holub: Two Former Prosecutors Who Built a Firm From the Same County They Used to Prosecute In

William M. Hines III spent five years as a prosecutor in Travis and Williamson counties before switching sides in 2001. His current law partner, Richard “Marc” Ranc, made the same move around the same time. Two decades later, both are still practicing from the same stretch of downtown Austin, now defending the kinds of cases they used to bring. This profile is part of Awesome Attorneys’ coverage of Austin criminal defense attorney options.

At a Glance

Origin & Background

Hines began his legal career as a public defender in Florida before returning to Texas, where he served as an Assistant District Attorney in Williamson County (1993–1995) and then Travis County (1995–2000). He earned his J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center and was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1990. He is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and holds a separate certification to administer standardized field sobriety tests — the same tests officers use during DWI stops, giving him direct technical grounds to challenge how they were administered. Ranc, a 1993 Baylor Law graduate, followed a parallel path through the Williamson County DA’s office before joining Hines in 2001; he was recognized with an Outstanding Leadership award from the Williamson County Bar Association in 2005 and later served as the association’s president. Holub, a 1996 Gonzaga Law graduate recognized with a CALI Award, rounds out the partnership with a practice spanning drug crimes, fraud, and violent offenses.

Austin Criminal Defense Attorney Practice Concentration

The firm’s caseload centers on DWI defense (including breath, blood, and refusal cases), assault and family violence charges, drug offenses, and felony matters generally, with additional experience in estate planning listed on Hines’s own Bar profile. Firm materials describe the practice as extending across Travis, Williamson, and surrounding Central Texas counties, consistent with the firm’s three physical offices in Austin, Georgetown, and Round Rock.

Track Record

Public case summaries attributed to Hines and Ranc individually include a multiple-misdemeanor-charge dismissal and a Williamson County DWI dismissal (per Ranc’s Avvo case history), and the firm’s own site lists case outcomes including a DWI reduced to Class C Public Intoxication. These are the firm’s own reported case results; past outcomes do not predict future results, and every case turns on its own facts.

Client Voice

Hines carries a 5.0 Avvo rating across five client reviews, several describing multi-year representation:

“Dealing with a DWI for the 1st time was the worst time ever!… they actually got me a dismissal, as I am in nursing school and they really cared about what and how I was doing.” — client review, Avvo

“He fought consistently for my future for over two years and the result was the best possible outcome.” — client review, Avvo (assault case)

Hines has also drawn peer endorsements from other Austin criminal defense attorneys, including one from an opposing counsel who faced him in serious felony trials and described him as “persuasive in front of juries.” Awesome Attorneys did not identify negative reviews of Hines or Ranc during this research; Holub had no reviews on file at the time of research, a gap disclosed here rather than papered over.

Beyond the Courtroom

Ranc’s Williamson County Bar Association presidency and his 2005 Outstanding Leadership recognition reflect sustained bar-association involvement rather than one-off marketing credentials. The firm’s three-office footprint across Austin, Georgetown, and Round Rock also signals a genuine Central Texas practice rather than an Austin landing page bolted onto an out-of-area operation.

Recognition

Hines’s Board Certification in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization is the credential this profile treats as substantive; his separate field sobriety test certification is a technical, practice-specific qualification rather than a marketing distinction. Both Hines and Ranc carry strong peer-review ratings (9.4 “Superb” on Avvo for Ranc; 5.0/5.0 for Hines), and both draw specific, named endorsements from other members of the Austin criminal defense bar rather than generic praise.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas defines driving while intoxicated under Penal Code § 49.04, which turns on either a measured blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher or a showing that a driver’s mental or physical faculties were impaired — a distinction that matters because field sobriety testing (Hines’s specific certification area) speaks to the second standard, not just the breath or blood number. Texas’s implied consent framework means a driver who refuses testing still faces license consequences even without a conviction, a nuance firms in this space regularly have to explain to first-time clients. For criminal matters generally, Texas has no unified statute of limitations; felony prosecution deadlines vary by offense type under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 12, while most misdemeanors must be charged within two years.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Hines Ranc & Holub’s clearest strength is structural: two of its three named partners spent their formative years as prosecutors in the exact counties — Travis and Williamson — where the firm now defends clients, and Hines’s field sobriety certification gives him a specific technical basis for challenging DWI stops rather than a general claim of DWI experience. The peer endorsements from other named Austin criminal defense attorneys, rather than anonymous “recommended lawyer” badges, are a stronger signal than most marketing credentials in this space.

The honest gap: Holub, the firm’s third partner, has no public client reviews on file, and the firm’s own combined-experience figure (85+ years) is a firm-reported number rather than an independently tallied one. Neither undercuts the two partners’ individually verifiable prosecutorial and board-certification records, but both are worth naming rather than smoothing over.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (h2hlaw.com), State Bar of Texas attorney records for Hines, Ranc, and Holub, Avvo attorney profiles and client reviews, and Martindale’s firm listing. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure as published by the Texas Legislature. No case results, credentials, or quotes were invented; all client reviews and peer endorsements are attributed to their original platform.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Hines Ranc & Holub 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 Hines Ranc & Holub or Awesome Attorneys.