About
Ken Gibson, Austin DWI Attorney
I have worked on more than 6,000 DWI cases since 1998. Today DWI is the only kind of case I take.
I did not start out in law. I ran a donut shop on Guadalupe Street first, and I think that is a more useful background for this work than it sounds.
Free Consultation
Call 512-469-6056
Austin DWI Defense Attorney
Ken Gibson
Kenneth M. Gibson, Texas Bar number 00032985
6,000+
DWI Cases Handled
Since 1998
Practicing DWI Defense
DWI Only
Defense Focus
Before the law, there was Ken's Donuts
I grew up in Dallas and came to Austin for university, graduating from the University of Texas in 1992. What I did next was not law school. I opened a donut shop on Guadalupe Street and ran it myself.
Running a small business teaches you things a classroom does not. You learn what it costs someone to lose a day's work. You learn that people turning up at five in the morning are usually dealing with something, and that the useful response is to be straightforward with them rather than impressive. You learn to answer your own phone.
After several years I sold the shop and went to law school at Oklahoma City University, graduating with my Juris Doctor in 1998. I have been practicing in Austin ever since.
I mention it because it explains how this office runs. A DWI arrest lands on people who have jobs, families and obligations that do not pause while a case moves through a courthouse. I have been on the other side of that counter, and it is why I would rather tell you plainly what you are facing than sell you something.
Why DWI, and why only DWI
I handled general criminal defense for years, and that work taught me the courtroom. But DWI is a different discipline from the rest of criminal law, and treating it as one file type among many does not do it justice.
A DWI case is built on science and procedure as much as on facts. It involves an instrument with documented failure conditions, a roadside battery with validated administration requirements, a warrant process, a lab, and a civil license case running on a separate clock from the criminal one. Knowing all of that well takes concentration on it specifically.
So that is what I do now. DWI is the whole practice. It is why I can tell you on a first call what a particular set of facts usually does in Travis, Williamson or Hays county, and why I am comfortable saying when a case has a genuine problem in it and when it does not.
You deal with me throughout. I file the license request, I review the video, I argue the motions and I stand next to you in court. There is no associate to be handed to.
That focus also makes the preparation consistent from one case to the next. The report is compared with the dash-camera, body-camera and booking video, then any breath or blood records are traced back to the people, instruments and procedures that produced them. Doing that work before recommending a direction for the case keeps the advice tied to the evidence rather than to a label on the charging document.
The Law Office of Ken Gibson
812 San Antonio Street, Suite 100
Austin, Texas 78701
512-469-6056
Available 24 hours
Counties
Travis · Williamson · Hays
Bar admission
Kenneth M. Gibson
Texas Bar number 00032985
Licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas
Training in the science the State relies on
Most of a DWI case is someone else's evidence: an instrument, a roadside test and a lab result. I have trained on all three, in several cases through the same programs the other side uses.
NHTSA field sobriety training
I have completed training with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in administering the standardized field sobriety tests. It is the same training law enforcement officers receive, which means I know how the tests are supposed to be given and what the scoring actually measures. See field sobriety tests.
Intoxilyzer operator and technician
I have completed training under Department of Transportation guidelines as an Intoxilyzer operator and technician, and I own the instruments outright rather than reading about them. Knowing where a breath machine is strong and where it is weak is the difference between accepting a number and testing it. See breath test defense.
The Borkenstein Course
I have attended the Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety, Testing, Research and Legislation at Indiana University. It is the same course the State's expert witnesses attend, which is precisely why it is worth having done.
Background
Kenneth M. Gibson
| Practicing since | 1998 |
| DWI cases worked on | More than 6,000 |
| Juris Doctor | Oklahoma City University School of Law, 1998 |
| Undergraduate | The University of Texas at Austin, 1992 |
| Bar admission | State Bar of Texas, number 00032985 |
| Memberships | State Bar of Texas · State Bar College of Texas · Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association · Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association |
| Practice scope | DWI defense exclusively |
| Counties | Travis, Williamson and Hays |
Keeping current, because this area does not sit still
Texas DWI law changes more often than most people expect, and a great deal of what is published about it is simply out of date.
The Driver Responsibility Program, with its annual surcharges, was repealed in 2019. Firms still publish it. The waiting periods before an occupational license could issue were repealed in 2023. Pages still tell people to wait ninety days. A DWI became eligible for sealing in 2017, and sites still say it never can be. In September 2025 a DWI in an active school crossing zone became a state jail felony, and almost nobody has caught up with that yet.
I spend time each month on current cases, legal treatises and the scientific literature, because the alternative is giving advice about a version of the law that no longer exists. Everything on this site is written against the statutes as they currently stand.
What I will not tell you
I will not promise you an outcome, and I would be careful with anyone who does. What a case does depends on what the evidence turns out to be.
What I will do is look at it properly and tell you honestly what I see, including when the answer is not what you hoped.
Related pages
Where I practice
Three counties, fourteen cities, and the county lines that catch people out.
Travis County DWI defense
Where Austin area cases are heard, and the diversion program.
First offense DWI
What a Class B actually carries, and whether it can be kept off your record.
Questions about my practice
Do you handle anything other than DWI?
Not any more. I handled general criminal defense for years, and that experience is part of what I bring, but today DWI is the only kind of case I take.
Will I be working with you or with an associate?
With me. I file the license request, review the video, argue the motions and appear in court myself.
Which counties do you cover?
Travis, Williamson and Hays, which covers Austin and the surrounding cities. See my service area.
Did you really run a donut shop?
I did, on Guadalupe Street, after graduating from the University of Texas in 1992. I sold it to go to law school. It is not a marketing story, it is just what I did before this.
What does the first conversation cost?
Nothing. Call and tell me what happened, and I will tell you what you are actually facing.