Teresa DeFord - Personal Family Lawyer ®

Rathwell, De Ford & Wallison
R | D | W Building
25511 Budde Road, Ste 601
The Woodlands, TX 77380

Office: (281) 296-8900
Fax: (281) 296-6970
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Born on Christmas Eve 1966 in Lansing, Michigan, Teresa grew up in the small, Mid-Michigan farming community of Ovid. Teresa later studied political philosophy and criminal justice at Michigan State University. Teresa graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. with honors in 1990.

While at Michigan State, Teresa participated in two internships with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C.  Teresa’s internships turned into a five year career with the DEA as an Intelligence Research Specialist, taking her from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, California, and finally to Houston, Texas.

After five years with the DEA, Teresa started law school at the University of Houston Law Center. During law school, Teresa became a member of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity and was inducted into the Order of the Barons. Teresa was also the Senior Articles Editor for the Houston Law Review during her third year of law school. Teresa graduated from the University of Houston Law Center cum laude and was admitted to the Texas bar in 1995. She was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 2001.

After graduating from law school, Teresa worked for almost four years as a trial lawyer with the law firm of Thompson & Knight, P.C. in Houston. In 1999, she joined Rathwell & Nizialek, P.C. as an associate just as the firm was moving its offices from the Galleria area to The Woodlands. Teresa became a partner with the firm in January of 2003. In 2008, the firm became Rathwell De Ford & Wallison, PLLC. Teresa’a practice includes a variety of personal injury, commercial, employment and contractual indemnity litigation.

Teresa is a member of the Board of Directors of the Montgomery County (TX) Bar Association Texas Bar Association, the Louisiana Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute. She is admitted to practice before all Texas and Louisiana state courts, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, the Eastern and Western Districts of Louisiana, and the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Teresa is also a member of the Society of Professional Women in Petroleum, Women on Course, and the 2008-2009 class of Leadership Montgomery County.

Teresa has been married to her husband Mark, a computer engineer she met while at Michigan State, since 1992. Son Evan was born in December of 1999, attends Barbara Bush Elementary in The Woodlands, and is obsessed with football. Teresa and her husband welcomed another son, Austin, to the family in August of 2006. The De Fords have resided in The Woodlands since 1992.

Personal Family Lawyer ®