LEGAL EAGLES
Andrew Decker —
Pulpit to Courtroom, His Quantum Leap of Faith
52
Andrew Decker didn’t take the usual path to
a career in criminal defense by attending law
school right after completing his undergradu-
ate degree, but that just might be what sets him
apart from so many other defense attorneys.
Decker earned his undergraduate degree from
Southwestern University in Georgetown and
his Master’s of Divinity degree from Southern
Methodist University.
Before practicing law and helping defendants,
he presided over United Methodist Churches in
Cleburne, Blum and Fort Worth, over a span of
15 years.
Decker passed the bar exam in 2014 and is
licensed to practice law after graduating from
Texas A&M School of Law. His career change
came about when he took time off from the
ministry to spend some time with his family.
During that time, he talked with a few attorney
friends and a judge, asking their opinion of him
becoming an attorney himself, and they whole-
heartedly encouraged him to join their profes-
sion.
He enjoys criminal defense work and even
said, “It’s fun to me. You get to hear the craziest
stories.” He also enjoys fighting with the state,
making sure they follow the rules established by
the constitution. “I love the courtroom and being
in court,” he said. “It’s honestly why criminal
defense sucked me in, you really get to defend
people’s rights every day,” he continued. “Yes,
people make bad choices and they have to deal
with the consequences. I have to make sure that
the police did their job and didn’t overstep my
client’s constitutional rights.” While he likes
to investigate, he also appreciates good, solid
police work.
He’s gratified most by opportunities to right
wrongs, especially when a defendant is truly
innocent. “I defended a kid who was flat-out
innocent. He was charged with a second-degree
felony for beating up a girl,” said Decker. He
was retained by the young man’s family and
after hiring a private investigator and completing
a number of interviews of witnesses at the party
where the girl was attacked, the real perpetra-
tor of the crime was found to be another young
woman who admitted to the assault. “We had
more witness statements through a private inves-
tigator than the police had within 48 hours.” The
case took six months to be dismissed. Decker
said of his client, “He was able to keep moving
down the road when he was facing two to 20 in
the pen.”
He admits the law has changed and will
continue to do so over the next decade because
of the information available to potential clients
on the Internet. “There is already a difference in
what people can find out about the law by doing
a Google search,” he said. However, those
online resources aren’t always as specific as
people need them to be. He described the issues
that sometimes come up when clients try to do
their own online research or legal documents.
“Doing it yourself, you may not be doing the
right thing. A little bit of knowledge is enough to
get you in a lot of trouble,” he said.
Decker has a number of mentors in his own
office including Fort Worth-based Attorney Mark
Daniel. Describing the group of lawyers that
he offices with as a “huge brain trust of experi-
ence,” Decker also says, “They all have lots of
experience and have seen and heard everything.
I couldn’t be more blessed to work with this
group.”
Decker’s firm is an association of six crimi-
nal defense attorneys with offices in Willow
Park and in Sundance Square in downtown Fort
Worth. He’s a member of the Texas Bar College,
Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association,
Tarrant County Criminal Defense Lawyers
Association, Tarrant County Bar Association and
the Addie Bar Association.
LEGAL EAGLES