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David A. Kazen: The Family Lawyer Who Refunded Part of a Client’s Retainer

One client review of David Kazen includes a detail that’s unusual enough to be worth leading with: after the case wrapped up, Kazen refunded part of the client’s retainer — money the client didn’t expect back. It’s a small, specific, verifiable data point about how a solo family law practice actually bills, and it says more than a general claim about “client-focused service” would.

Origin and Background

David A. Kazen has practiced law in Texas since 1995 and has run his own family law practice, based in downtown Austin, since 2005. He is board certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a certification he has held since 2006 and that the firm’s own materials note fewer than 1% of Texas attorneys achieve. He holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent peer-review rating, the service’s highest, and has received Martindale-Hubbell’s “Platinum” Client Champion award — a distinction requiring at least ten client reviews and a 4.5-or-higher average score. Kazen is a member of the Austin Bar Association’s Family Law Section, the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas, and is a past president of the Collaborative Law Group of Austin.

Practice Concentration

The practice covers the full range of Texas family law: contested and uncontested divorce (including same-sex divorce), complex property division, child custody and support, collaborative law, adoptions, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, and family violence/protective order matters. Kazen also handles international family law cases involving foreign nationals, an area of specific continuing-education focus reflected in his 2010 presentation on marriage dissolution cases involving foreign nationals at the State Bar’s Advanced Family Law Course. For a broader look at how solo and boutique family law practices in this market compare, see our Family Law & Divorce directory.

Notable Work / Track Record

As with most family law practices, Kazen’s site does not publish a verdict or settlement table, since custody and property outcomes in Texas are individualized and family court records are frequently restricted from public access. Awesome Attorneys is disclosing that gap rather than substituting marketing language for it. What is independently verifiable is tenure: nearly 30 years of continuous Texas family law practice and 20 years running his own Austin practice, with board certification maintained continuously since 2006 — a credential requiring periodic recertification, not a one-time exam.

Client Voice

Kazen holds an aggregated 5.0-out-of-5.0 rating across 20 reviews on Avvo and Lawyers.com, and a separate 5-star rating across 22 Google reviews tracked by Trustindex. Avvo’s licensing record shows no misconduct findings. One client described a nearly decade-long relationship with Kazen across “an incredibly difficult divorce,” citing his “thorough knowledge of the law coupled with his rational and sensible advice.” Another wrote that Kazen “sees his clients as human beings and not as dollar signs,” specifically noting he “refunded some of my retainer fee, which is very unheard of in family law” — a detail Awesome Attorneys is highlighting because it’s the kind of specific, checkable claim that’s harder to fabricate than general praise. Awesome Attorneys did not identify any negative reviews for this attorney in the course of research; given the review platforms searched, this should be read as “none found” rather than “none exist.”

Beyond the Courtroom

Kazen is a past president of the Collaborative Law Group of Austin and maintains active membership in the Travis County Law Advocates. His continuing-education presentations to other family law practitioners — including at the State Bar of Texas’s own Advanced Family Law Course — reflect a practice that trains peers as well as serves clients.

Recognition for This Austin Family Law Attorney

Peer-reviewed and third-party credentials: board certification in Family Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, held since 2006; Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent peer-review rating; and Martindale-Hubbell’s Platinum Client Champion award. Avvo’s “Client’s Choice” badge and 5.0 rating reflect a client-review-driven system distinct from the peer- and judicial-input process behind AV Preeminent and TBLS certification, and Awesome Attorneys distinguishes them accordingly.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Kazen’s practice in same-sex divorce and international family law matters intersects with some of the more procedurally specific corners of Texas family law: for international cases, jurisdiction and service-of-process rules under the Hague Convention can apply when a spouse resides abroad, adding steps beyond a standard Texas divorce filing. Protective order matters, part of the firm’s family-violence practice, proceed under Texas Family Code Title 4, with emergency protective orders available on an expedited basis distinct from the standard civil filing timeline. None of this is legal advice; the applicable procedure for a specific case — particularly one involving international elements or safety concerns — should be confirmed with a licensed Texas attorney immediately rather than researched independently.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

The strongest, most specific fact about this practice is continuity paired with verified client satisfaction: nearly three decades of Texas family law practice, board certification maintained for two decades, and a genuinely large review sample (over 40 combined across platforms) with a consistent 5.0 rating and no misconduct findings. The honest trade-off is the same one that applies to any solo practice: there’s no bench of associate attorneys to hand off overflow work, and a client should ask directly about availability and backup coverage if their matter is likely to require rapid response (an emergency protective order, for instance) during a period when Kazen may already be in trial on another case. For a family law matter that benefits from one attorney’s direct, continuous involvement — which most divorce and custody cases do — that’s a reasonable trade to accept. For a matter requiring a large team working in parallel, a bigger firm may be a better fit.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from the Law Office of David A. Kazen’s official website (kazenlaw.com), David Kazen’s Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell, Lawyers.com, and Justia attorney profiles, Trustindex’s aggregated Google review data, and the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s public certification standards. Client quotes are reproduced from publicly posted, attributed reviews.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by David A. Kazen prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.