Practice Emphasis
Donna Peavler began her trial career while still in law school, trying and winning her first case as a third-year student. Since then, she has tried over 30 jury cases to verdict in Texas state and federal courts. In addition, she has significant arbitration experience, taking numerous cases through arbitration final hearings. While she has handled several construction and employment-law arbitrations, most of her arbitration experience is in nonsubscription, an area in which Donna is known as one of Texas’s foremost authorities, frequently writing articles, speaking, and consulting with lobbying groups on the topic. In her daily practice, Donna mainly handles general-liability and nonsubscription cases, with claims ranging from wrongful-death, 18-wheeler crashes, premises liability, and products liability, to criminal-activity and false-imprisonment/malicious prosecution.
For many years, Donna has consistently received the highest ethical and legal-ability ratings awarded to lawyers—by not just her peers, but by judges, too. And unlike most trial lawyers, Donna does not limit her practice to the trial courtroom; she also has a substantial appellate practice. Donna not only interned for the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, but she since handled three appeals before the Texas Supreme Court, resulting in three Texas Supreme Court victories. Her most recent win in Austin v. Kroger Texas L.P., 465 S.W.3d 193 (Tex. 2015), has been cited over 1,000 times, including by every court of appeals in Texas, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and every federal district court division in Texas.
Donna started her career at the multi-national law firm of Jones Day. She left there to join a trial boutique firm for a few years, before venturing out on her own in 2002 with one client—the Kroger Co. Donna has since built her women-owned practice into a 10-lawyer firm that now represents numerous Fortune 100 and 500 companies in all cities and regions of Texas. Her flagship client, The Kroger Co., has exclusively used Donna’s firm in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for over 20 years. And over the last six years, her firm has won more cases for Kroger than any other firm in the nation, thus receiving Kroger’s “Most Defense Victories” award. Over the years, Donna and her firm have accumulated over 100 summary judgments for her retail, distribution, and transportation clients. Other honors Donna has amassed include being named a “Go To” lawyer for Fortune 500 Companies, and repeatedly being named a “SuperLawyer” in Texas; a “Top Lawyer” in Dallas and Fort Worth; a D Magazine “Best Lawyer in Dallas”; and a US News & World Report “Best Lawyer in Dallas.” In 2019, she received the highest award given by the Texas Lawyer, when she was awarded one of seven Lifetime Achievement Awards.