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Arambula Terrazas: One of Fewer Than 50 Texas Attorneys Board Certified in Both Trial and Appellate Law

Winning a case at trial and winning it on appeal require different, sometimes contradictory skill sets — a trial lawyer’s aggressive, jury-facing instincts don’t always translate to the more technical, judge-facing work of appellate briefing. Kevin Terrazas holds board certification in both: Civil Trial Law and Civil Appellate Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a dual credential the firm’s own materials note fewer than 50 Texas attorneys hold. That combination is the specific, verifiable fact this firm is built around.

Mixed-Representation Disclosure

Arambula Terrazas PLLC represents both plaintiffs and defendants in commercial litigation, depending on the matter. The firm’s own materials state it has “won for plaintiffs and defendants in cases where millions of dollars are at stake,” and Kevin Terrazas’s individual case history includes both prosecuting claims (a Texas Securities Act claim against an Austin manufacturer) and defending them (representing an international media company in employment-related federal litigation). Awesome Attorneys discloses this explicitly, consistent with its standard practice for every Business & Corporate Litigation profile.

Origin and Background

The firm was founded by Kevin Terrazas as Terrazas PLLC and rebranded to Arambula Terrazas PLLC in 2025 to reflect Belinda Arambula’s partnership; Awesome Attorneys is noting the recent name change explicitly since older directory listings and search results may still reference the prior name. Terrazas is a Harvard Law School honors graduate and a West Point honors graduate who served in the United States Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal; he clerked for Judge Priscilla R. Owen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before entering private practice. He is board certified in both Civil Trial Law and Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is also registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Belinda Arambula is separately board certified in Civil Trial Law. Before founding this firm, Terrazas was a co-founding partner of Cleveland Terrazas PLLC and a partner at both Weisbart Springer Hayes LLP and Yetter Coleman LLP — an appellate- and commercial-litigation-focused career path rather than a generalist one.

Practice Concentration

The firm handles high-stakes commercial trials and appeals: contract disputes, real estate litigation, intellectual property disputes, employment claims, antitrust matters, securities claims, and constitutional and appellate law, in both state and federal courts and before arbitration tribunals. Terrazas has argued before courts ranging from Texas county courts up through the U.S. Supreme Court. This appellate-integrated model — the same firm handling a case at trial and, if needed, on appeal — distinguishes it from litigation-only shops covered elsewhere in this Business & Corporate Litigation directory that typically refer appellate work out.

Notable Work / Track Record

The firm’s published case history includes several appellate wins Awesome Attorneys is presenting as the firm’s own claims: reversal of a final judgment (including an attorneys’ fees award) in the Third Court of Appeals involving a breach of contract dispute over a services agreement; a Fifth Circuit argument that resulted in vacatur and remand of a bankruptcy court judgment for lack of constitutional authority; successful defense on appeal of a judgment exceeding $2.5 million concerning City of Austin negligence; and representation of an international mining company before the Texas Supreme Court concerning arbitrator impartiality. The firm has also been recognized across multiple years for individual trial verdicts and settlements ranking among Texas’s largest, per third-party trend-tracking publications the firm cites (Top 50 Verdicts, Top 50 Settlements, and similar annual rankings). As with all litigation results, past outcomes do not guarantee similar results in any future matter.

Client Voice

Kevin Terrazas’s Chambers USA client-interview quotes, gathered independently by Chambers rather than curated by the firm, describe him as delivering “repeated good results” and being “smart, practical and delivers results.” Terrazas’s individual Avvo profile shows no client reviews and no misconduct findings; Awesome Attorneys is disclosing the limited public consumer-review sample directly, since a firm handling large institutional and business clients often has less public review volume than a consumer-facing practice, and that gap shouldn’t be read as a negative signal on its own.

Beyond the Courtroom

The firm has been named Commercial Law Firm of the Year–Texas by Corporate LiveWire’s Innovation and Excellence Awards, and both Kevin Terrazas and the firm collectively have received Chambers USA rankings for multiple consecutive years (Band 1 in 2020, Band 2 in 2021, and continued recognition through the 2025–2026 edition under the current firm name).

Recognition for This Austin Business Litigation Firm

Peer-reviewed and third-party credentials: dual board certification (Civil Trial Law and Civil Appellate Law) for Kevin Terrazas and Civil Trial Law certification for Belinda Arambula, both from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; Chambers USA rankings in Litigation: General Commercial for Texas: Austin & Surrounds; and selection to the Texas Super Lawyers list for Kevin Terrazas from 2020 through 2026. Awesome Attorneys distinguishes these peer- and judicially-informed rankings from marketing-oriented “Legal Elite” or regional magazine badges that also appear on the firm’s site, which reflect a different, less rigorous evaluation process.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Appeals of Texas district court judgments generally must be initiated within 30 days of a final judgment (or within 90 days if certain post-judgment motions are timely filed) under the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, a strict deadline that makes early engagement of appellate counsel important in any case where an unfavorable trial outcome seems possible. Commercial arbitration in Texas is governed by the Texas Arbitration Act (Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 171) for state-law matters, or the Federal Arbitration Act where the underlying contract or dispute involves interstate commerce — the choice of which framework applies can materially affect a party’s rights to appeal an arbitration award. None of this is legal advice; the specific procedural framework and deadlines for any Texas commercial dispute should be confirmed with a licensed attorney based on the actual case posture.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

The clearest, most specific differentiator here is the dual board certification — trial and appellate — held by fewer than 50 Texas attorneys, paired with a Chambers USA ranking that reflects independent client and peer interviews rather than a self-submitted award. The honest trade-off is what comes with any boutique built around one or two name partners: the firm is small, recently rebranded, and its public consumer-review footprint is thin, which makes it harder for a prospective client to independently gauge day-to-day client experience the way a larger, more consumer-reviewed firm allows. For a business facing a genuinely high-stakes dispute where an eventual appeal is a real possibility — not just a hypothetical — having trial and appellate strategy handled by the same credentialed team from day one is a meaningful structural advantage. For a more routine commercial dispute unlikely to be appealed regardless of outcome, that specific differentiator matters less.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Arambula Terrazas PLLC’s official website (terrazaspllc.com, redirecting to atlawpllc.com), Kevin Terrazas’s Super Lawyers, Chambers USA, State Bar of Texas, and Avvo profiles, a Voyage Austin interview with Kevin Terrazas, and the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s public certification standards. Case outcomes and awards are attributed to the firm’s own published materials except where independently corroborated by Chambers USA or Super Lawyers.

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 Arambula Terrazas PLLC or its attorneys 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.