Why Choose Botkin Chiarello Calaf?

At Botkin Chiarello Calaf, we’re a team of agile, forward-thinking lawyers dedicated to the success of our clients and our community. Our firm’s success earned us a spot on the prestigious Chambers Regional Spotlight Guide. Here’s more of what to expect from our legal team:

Whether you’re looking for a uniquely qualified litigator, an outside general counsel, or a seasoned employment counselor, Botkin Chiarello Calaf will deliver. Before joining Botkin Chiarello Calaf, our partners enjoyed successful careers at large national law firms, as senior in-house litigation counsel, and in leadership within the State of Texas’ litigation division. Each of our partners has first-chair trial experience, whether in state or federal court or before arbitration tribunals. Our clients’ industries often have highly nuanced, technical, and complex regulations. When a challenge arrives, we don’t blink.

We pride ourselves on how we communicate with clients at every step of the pre-suit and litigation process. We plan, communicate our intentions, and obtain client feedback to avoid unnecessary surprises. Our small team approach ensures that our lawyers are immersed in their client’s problem and understand the client’s business objectives, realities, and information material to obtaining the best possible result. Our clients appreciate the accessibility of our entire team—and each member of the team will be well-versed in the client’s case and makes the client’s fight their own.

Botkin Chiarello Calaf is committed to more than just smart, effective, and pragmatic legal advocacy for our clients. Our actions demonstrate our values.

We believe that when you earn a law degree, it comes with an obligation to use it to make the world a better place for those who can’t afford a lawyer, for our community as a whole, and for those who come after us. That is why we dedicate hundreds of hours to pro bono work to representing clients in both civil and criminal matters; taking on impact litigation to protect constitutional rights, as well as individual cases that will alter the destiny of one person; and sometimes spending a few hours at a weekly legal clinic, while other times undertaking a case that will span a decade. Our lawyers have represented, for example, a group of citizens in Llano challenging the county’s decision censor public libraries—removing books addressing LGTBQ+ issues and systemic racism from the public library case; minority organizations challenging the constitutionality of presidential winner-take all laws in Texas; immigrants seeking asylum; criminal defendants arguing ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal; and a Texas woman whose criminal conviction and 25-year prison sentence stems from her status as a domestic violence survivor.

Our attorneys are also committed to elevating and improving the legal profession. Our contributions of time and energy has led to leadership positions in a variety of legal organizations.

We are also dedicated to making the profession more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. Five of our six partners are women, and half of our partners are minorities. Diverse perspectives enable us to identify and evaluate multiple approaches to legal challenges, benefitting our clients. We are actively engaged in legal and community diversity efforts. For example, we regularly speak to and host the Minority Women Pursuing Law undergraduate group at the University of Texas, María Amelia Calaf is the founder of the Austin chapter of Cafecitos (a network dedicated to advancing Latina lawyers) and was recognized by Texas Lawyer as a Diversity and Inclusion Champion in 2022, and several of our partners have served on the Steering Committee for the State Bar of Texas’ Minority Counsel Program.

We were founded and are located in Austin. We often serve as lead or local counsel for clients who want to tap our deep experience with the federal and state courts in Austin.

We have a hometown advantage in Austin, but we excel equally in representing clients throughout Texas and across the country. Botkin Chiarello Calaf partners have been lead counsel in courts around the country, including in California state courts, the Central District of California, Southern District of New York, the Western District of Tennessee, the Northern District of Mississippi, and the District of Puerto Rico.