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W. Austin Barsalou: A Houston HOA Attorney Who Sits on the State Bar’s Own Real Estate Advisory Commission

Origin and Background

Barsalou & Associates, P.L.L.C. is located at 4635 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77027, confirmed through State Bar of Texas records and the firm’s own site (State Bar listings show the suite number variously as 530 and 580 across different cached directory pages; Awesome Attorneys was unable to resolve which is current and recommends confirming the suite number directly before an in-person visit). Managing shareholder W. Austin Barsalou earned his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975, was licensed in Texas in 1980, and was later admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 1982 and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1984. He is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in both Residential Real Estate Law (since 2005) and Property Owners’ Association Law (since 2018). Since 2017, Barsalou has served on the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s own Real Estate Advisory Commission — the body that helps oversee the certification he holds — and he chaired the State Bar of Texas’s Common Interest Ownership Committee within the Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section from 2014 to 2018, remaining a committee member since.

Practice Concentration

The firm’s practice centers on community association representation — homeowners associations, condominium associations, and commercial maintenance associations — alongside broader business law and litigation, entity formation, business sales and acquisitions, contracts, and securities law. On the HOA side, the firm handles deed restriction enforcement, assessment collection, condominium association litigation and appeals, and day-to-day governance advice for association boards and the property managers who work with them. Barsalou is also a certified mediator through the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Institute and previously served as an adjunct instructor of Real Estate Law, Contracts, and Community Association Law at the University of Houston Real Estate Institute. See this Houston Real Estate & Property directory for how this HOA-focused boutique compares to other firms serving Harris County.

Notable Work / Track Record

As is typical for an HOA governance and enforcement practice, the firm does not publish a table of case verdicts or settlements, and Awesome Attorneys did not identify one. What is independently verifiable is Barsalou’s multi-decade record of continuing legal education authorship on the subject: he has presented “Enforcement of Private Land Use Regulations: Point/Counterpoint — Community Association’s Viewpoint” at the State Bar of Texas’s Advanced Real Estate Law Course, “The Homeowner Association Wars: The Community Association’s Viewpoint” for the Houston Bar Association, and a session on Chapter 209 of the Texas Property Code at the University of Texas Law CLE’s Mortgage Lending Institute, according to his Super Lawyers biography.

Client Voice

Awesome Attorneys did not identify a public consumer-review presence for Barsalou & Associates, consistent with a firm whose clients are primarily HOA and condominium association boards and the property management companies that serve them, rather than individual homeowners engaging the firm directly. The firm’s own site states that “many times, our clients come to us because they have been referred by a current client who has seen how our firm adds value to their everyday operations,” a self-description of its referral-based client base rather than a quoted testimonial.

Beyond the Courtroom

Barsalou’s civic and professional service runs through community-association governance rather than a separate nonprofit board: he served as a director on the Board of the Houston Chapter of the Community Associations Institute for three years and has chaired that chapter’s Legal Committee since 2013. He also teaches continuing legal education on HOA law for the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, and other organizations, according to his firm biography. Awesome Attorneys did not identify separate non-legal civic board service documented for him.

Recognition for This Houston Real Estate Firm

Barsalou has been recognized as a Top Rated Houston Real Estate Attorney by Super Lawyers. His double Board Certification — Residential Real Estate Law since 2005 and Property Owners’ Association Law since 2018, both through the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — combined with his current seat on that same board’s Real Estate Advisory Commission, is the credential Awesome Attorneys treats as decisive for “specialist”-level language in this profile; the advisory-commission seat is a regulatory-body role rather than a marketing-program award, and Awesome Attorneys distinguishes it accordingly from self-submitted directory recognitions.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas Property Code Chapter 209, the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, governs most of Barsalou’s core practice: it sets notice and hearing requirements before an HOA can suspend privileges or pursue certain remedies, restricts when and how an association may foreclose an assessment lien on a homestead, and requires associations to make certain records available to owners on request. Condominium associations are separately governed by the Texas Uniform Condominium Act under Property Code Chapter 82. Deed restriction enforcement in Texas generally proceeds as a request for injunctive relief in county or district court, distinct from the assessment-collection remedies available under Chapter 209. None of this is legal advice; a specific HOA or condominium association matter should be evaluated by a licensed Texas attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Barsalou & Associates’ clearest differentiator is regulatory-level credibility inside its own specialty: a double board-certified founder who currently sits on the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s Real Estate Advisory Commission and has chaired the State Bar’s own community-association committee, giving the firm a level of institutional standing in HOA law that most competitors in this category cannot claim. The honest trade-off is a narrow practice built around association boards and property managers rather than individual homeowners with a single transaction, and Awesome Attorneys did not identify the kind of consumer reviews that would help an individual owner gauge responsiveness on a smaller matter. For an HOA or condominium board evaluating Houston counsel on governance, enforcement, or litigation, Barsalou’s regulatory and educational credentials are a reasonable basis for a shortlist.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Barsalou & Associates’ official website (barsalou.com), W. Austin Barsalou’s Super Lawyers biography, State Bar of Texas member directory records, and LawInfo’s firm directory listing.

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 Barsalou & Associates, P.L.L.C. 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.