Naomi Howard is a dedicated advocate who calmly navigates crises and fearlessly challenges injustice. For Naomi’s clients, these skills bring results which include pre-trial dismissal of charges, deferred adjudication, and appellate victories. Naomi’s practice focuses on investigations and criminal defense matters in Texas and federal courts. She has represented elected officials, professional athletes, corporate officers, and students, all of whom faced life-altering criminal charges or investigations. Though Naomi’s public victories have drawn acclaim—such as when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared a law facially unconstitutional based on her appellate work—Naomi is equally proud of the discreet ways she has helped innocent clients avoid charges or trial.
Before practicing law, Naomi worked for three years in Japan teaching English and, later, she moved to Austin and New York City where she worked in nationally recognized sushi restaurants and pursued training as a sushi chef. While attending St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, Naomi assisted Professor John Schmolesky (deceased) editing West’s Texas Criminal Practice and Procedure Series, worked as a staff writer on The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Race and Social Justice, and argued her first appellate case before the Fourth Court of Appeals as a student attorney in the St. Mary’s Center for Legal Justice Criminal Clinic. After graduation from law school. Naomi clerked for the Honorable Bert Richardson at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Naomi credits her mentor, Judge Richardson, with providing her a unique window into the appellate process.
Outside of work, Naomi ventures out into Houston’s multicultural restaurant scene looking for new tastes and inspiration. In addition to pro bono work she does with the firm, Naomi volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Houston, the Houston Chapter of the St. Mary’s Law Alumni Association, and is a board member of the Innocence Project of Texas.
J.D., St. Mary’s University, School of Law, San Antonio, Texas, 2014
Order of the Barristers; Phi Delta Phi; staff writer for The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Race and Social Justice, Vol. 15
B.A., English, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1996
Licensed to practice law in Texas
U.S. District Court for the Southern, Western and Eastern Districts of Texas
U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
Big Brothers Big Sisters, Big Taste Committee Member
Innocence Project of Texas, Board of Directors
St. Mary’s Law Alumni – Houston Chapter, President
