DonMichael Barbour

DonMichael Barbour is a Senior Associate in Tully Rinckey PLLC’s Austin office, where he primarily practices military law.

DonMichael graduated early from high school in 1995, in order to enlist in the U.S. Army at 17 years old. He served on active duty as a field artillery soldier for three years at the 101^st Airborne Division. After completing his enlistment, DonMichael then transitioned to a Reserve Civil Affairs unit while he attended college at St. Mary’s University, where he was appointed as a cadet into the ROTC. After graduating from St. Mary’s with a bachelor’s degree in business, and minor in military history, DonMichael was presented a commission into the U.S. Army JAG Corps in 2003, and attended Thurgood Marshall School of Law, graduating magna cum laude. He also served for two years as a clerk to Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, who is now on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In 2006, he began his service as an officer in the JAG Corps.

Serving as a military attorney on active duty for nine years, DonMichael gained extensive litigation experience, leading hundreds of thorough investigations and successfully defending against the highest charges, including capital murders, espionage, and sexual assaults. DonMichael himself, as well as the teams of legal professionals he led, consistently provided excellent representation, timely and accurate legal advice, and outstanding results to Soldiers and military leaders. His career spanned all aspects of military law, including military trial prosecution, criminal defense, operational law, administrative law, and investigations into commanders and staff. DonMichael also deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. For his time in service to the U.S. Army, DonMichael earned numerous honors, including being awarded the Army Meritorious Service Medal.

Upon retiring from the U.S. Army, DonMichael served for three years as an Assistant District Attorney for Dallas County, prosecuting criminal offenses and overseeing ten local courts. DonMichael sorely missed serving military members, and so he chose to pivot and dedicate his career to non-profit work, providing pro bono and reduced-fee legal assistance to active-duty military members, veterans, and their families. His areas of practice included criminal defense in courts-martial and state level offenses, applications for discharge review, VA claims and disability assistance, and family law and CPS cases. DonMichael’s experience and desire to help service members eventually led him to create a non-profit called the Veterans Legal Foundation, in Dallas, Texas, providing representation to qualifying veterans and their family members.

DonMichael never fails to provide the highest-level representation to his clients. This includes:

• Defending a Soldier in a high-publicity case in which he and four co-defendants were charged with multiple counts of intentionally murdering local civilians. Each of the co-defendants received sentences of many years’ confinement, up to and including life imprisonment. In contrast, this Soldier was defended by DonMichael so aggressively and successfully that top military prosecutors, knowing their case had been torn apart, accepted DonMichael’s offer that his client be separated from the Army in lieu of prosecution for murder.
• Being called on personally by the highest-level leaders in the JAG Corps to defend a Staff Sergeant who left post and assaulted and killed 17 Afghan civilians.
• Defending a Soldier, who found his girlfriend had overdosed. At trial, the accused was facing 113 years as a potential sentence. Ultimately, the client was not found guilty of the homicide and the Accused now works as an Engineer in Washington.
• Defending a unit supply sergeant who was accused (co-defendant was the unit armorer) of hundreds of thousands of dollars of theft. Ultimately my client was not convicted, because the government made a mistake, which DonMichael capitalized on.
• Defended a Servicemember who was being administratively separated for unsatisfactory performance. Through investigation, DonMichael discovered abuse and maltreatment against the represented Servicemember by high-ranking members of the command. After an office meeting with the brigade commander, the separation was withdrawn, and 15-6 investigations were initiated against the Sergeants Major and others as a result of their maltreatment of the represented Servicemember.

Court & Bar Admissions:

• Texas Bar
• Military Courts
• VA Accreditation

Military Education:

• Judge Advocate General’s Officer Basic Coursce
• US ROTC Leadership Development Assessment Course
• US Army Airborne School, Basic Parachutist Course
• USAFAS, Basic Training and Field Artillery OSUT
• US Army Air Assault School, Air Assault Course

Education:

• JD: Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Houston, TX (Magna Cum Laude)
• BA: Saint Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX
• Robert E. Lee High School, SATX

• Army Meritorious Service Medal (MSM)Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM), 2 OLC
• Army Achievement Medal (AAM)
• Iraqi Campaign Medal
• Global War on Terrorism
• Good Conduct Medal
• Overseas Service Ribbon, 2 OLC
• National Defense Service Medal, with Bronze Service Star Device (NDSM)
• Army Service Ribbon
• Meritorious Unit Citation Award
• Air Assault Badge
• Basic Parachutist Badge
• Distinguished Military Graduate