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Tylden Shaeffer: A Board-Certified Solo Practice Where You Actually Get Tylden

At many larger San Antonio criminal defense firms, a case gets handed off to a junior associate with limited courtroom experience. This San Antonio criminal defense attorney runs a deliberately solo practice specifically so that never happens — every client gets Tylden Shaeffer himself, backed by more than three decades of board-certified experience.

At a Glance: San Antonio Criminal Defense Attorney Overview

Origin & Background: A San Antonio Criminal Defense Attorney Since 1990

Tylden Shaeffer earned his B.A. from Brown University in 1986 and has been licensed to practice law in all Texas state courts since 1990. He began his career as a first-chair felony prosecutor supervising a trial team in a Texas District Court, giving him direct experience with how the state builds and prosecutes serious felony cases before he moved into defense work. He is also licensed to practice in the federal courts of the Western District of Texas and has completed trial advocacy training through the National District Attorneys Association.

Practice Concentration

Shaeffer’s solo practice covers DWI/DUI, drug crimes, domestic violence and other violent crimes including homicide, white collar crimes such as fraud, sex crimes, and a wide range of other felonies and misdemeanors in both state and federal court. The firm’s own marketing makes the solo structure an explicit selling point: “at many large firms, cases are handed off to junior associates with little courtroom experience. Here, that never happens.” Shaeffer speaks Spanish and French, expanding direct attorney-client communication access beyond English-speaking clients.

Notable Work

Shaeffer has authored publications specifically on DWI defense strategy, including a piece titled “Strategies in Defending DWI and DUI Cases: Attacking Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and Breath Tests” — a technical publication distinct from a general marketing claim of DWI expertise. The firm does not publish a structured, itemized case-results table with individual outcomes. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case, and this gap in a published results table is disclosed directly rather than papered over.

Client Voice

Shaeffer holds a 5.0-star rating across 20 Avvo reviews, with an overall Avvo rating of 9.6 out of 10. One client whose child faced serious allegations wrote that Shaeffer “took the time to learn the fine details of my child and provided insightful legal advice,” describing his legal knowledge as a specific asset during a difficult family situation. Another client’s review specifically praised his assistant Danica as “very kind” and “patient” alongside Shaeffer’s own knowledge and professionalism — a detail suggesting consistent service quality across the practice, not just from the named attorney. No negative reviews of substance were located during this research.

Beyond the Courtroom

Shaeffer has been voted one of San Antonio’s Best Criminal Defense Attorneys by Scene in SA Magazine continuously from 2008 through 2019 — more than a decade of sustained local peer and public recognition rather than a single-year honor. He has also been asked by courts to serve as a special prosecutor and has lectured at legal seminars, reflecting institutional trust from the bench itself.

Recognition

As a San Antonio criminal defense attorney, Shaeffer is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — the only “specialist” designation used in this profile, because it is independently state-administered. He holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent rating, its highest peer-review distinction, and is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. These are peer-review and state-board recognitions rather than firm self-description.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas DWI is governed by Texas Penal Code Chapter 49; a first offense is generally a Class B misdemeanor, escalating to a Class A misdemeanor with a prior conviction, an open container, or a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or above, and to a felony with a third conviction or a child under 15 in the vehicle. Under Texas Transportation Code § 724.011, a driver arrested for DWI is deemed to have given “implied consent” to a breath or blood test — the specific technical area Shaeffer has published on — with refusal triggering a separate, short-deadline Administrative License Revocation process independent of the criminal case. This is general background information, not legal advice, and does not account for the specific facts of any case.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Thirty-four years of continuous practice, board certification in criminal law, and a specific published technical work on challenging field sobriety and breath tests together represent a genuinely deep, verifiable specialization in DWI defense specifically — not just a general criminal practice that also takes DWI cases. A decade-plus of consistent “Best Criminal Defense Attorney” recognition from the same local publication reinforces sustained community standing.

The honest trade-off: as a true solo practice, Shaeffer offers no bench depth — there’s no team of associates to help staff a large, document-intensive case, and clients should understand that his personal availability is the entire practice’s capacity. That’s the same structural trade-off inherent to any solo practitioner, and it’s the flip side of the direct-access model the firm markets as a strength; a prospective client facing an unusually complex, multi-defendant, or document-heavy case should ask directly about capacity and timeline given the practice’s solo structure.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (sanantoniocriminalatty.com), including its about-us and federal criminal defense pages, Avvo’s attorney profile, reviews, and published-works listing, Martindale’s attorney and organization profiles, Lawyers.com’s Martindale-Avvo-sourced client reviews, and HG.org’s independent attorney directory listing.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independently researched legal directory. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by R. Tylden Shaeffer, Attorney at Law, P.C. prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to firms profiled on this site, but sponsorship status has no bearing on editorial content, and inclusion in this directory is not an endorsement of any firm for any particular legal matter. Nothing in this profile constitutes legal advice or a lawyer referral; readers with a legal question should consult a licensed Texas attorney directly.