Travis County’s Public Defenders Win More Pay for Early-Career Attorneys

People at the Travis County Commissioners Court demand pay increase for public defenders (photo by Austin Sanders)

Sitting at a table beneath Travis County’s commissioners, Robert Saulter explained to the five elected leaders how he views his job as an attorney in the county’s public defender’s office, why it’s important to him, and how the lack of competitive pay is making it harder and harder for him and his colleagues to continue doing that work.

“What I do for the county is keep people out of jail,” Saulter said. Out of the 123 clients Saulter is currently representing, he said, only one is in custody. Research shows that criminal defendants reach better outcomes when they are not sitting in detention.

In the past year that he’s worked as a public defender in Travis County, he estimates that he’s helped more than 15 people living on the street get into housing or drug treatment. “And I know every single one of my colleagues is doing the same,” he told the commissioners. Before moving to Austin, Saulter worked as an attorney in the Air Force for nine years, as both a prosecutor and defense counsel. “[Public defense] is the passion of my life,” Saulter told commissioners, “and it infuriates me to see prosecutors who have less trial experience make more money than me.”

The image of the overworked and underpaid public defense attorney is a common trope in movies and television, but it’s a cliche that reflects reality. According to PayScale, the median salary for a public defender nationwide in 2025 is about $62,000 and the median salary for criminal defense attorneys in private practice is about $87,000. But the salary ceilings are where attorneys really feel the pay disparity – per PayScale, the highest-earning public defenders earn about $96,000 compared to $161,000 for the highest-earning private criminal defense attorneys.

Public defenders are well aware of that reality. They don’t take these jobs for money and prestige, but out of passion for the work, they argue. But maintaining the motivation to continue down that career path is difficult, Saulter said, due to pay offered within the Travis County Public Defender’s Office that, historically, hasn’t even been competitive with the prosecutors working in the county and district attorney’s offices.

Earlier in the meeting, Geoff Burkhart, Travis County’s executive over community legal services, said that entry-level attorneys at TCPDO were paid about $15,000 less than their counterparts in the county attorney and district attorney offices. With a unanimous vote, commissioners addressed that part of the problem – early-career attorney positions at PDO will now offer a starting salary of $85,500.

But that solution is, at best, a Band-Aid, according to several TCPDO attorneys. To pay for the entry-level attorney salary increases, Travis County is having TCPDO use extra money in their budget – but that’s money the office would have used to fund raises for more experienced attorneys. Now, those attorneys will have to forgo salary increases because TCPDO won’t have any money to pay for them – which is the exact problem early-career and veteran attorneys in the office are currently facing.

A number of non-attorney TCPDO staff shared similar stories of financial sacrifices made to work in a field they are passionate about – only, the Commissioners Court’s vote won’t do anything for the social workers, legal secretaries, and investigators that make up this cohort. Some of these employees, several of whom work second jobs to make ends meet, won’t be getting the kind of raise that would make Travis County’s PDO a more competitive employer. It appears the county has a long way to go in that regard. One veteran investigator said she was leaving Travis County for a job in Pittsburgh where she would be doing the same work – but for double her current salary. (Commissioners did approve salary increases for vacant, non-attorney positions at PDO.)

As Saulter left the Commissioners Court meeting to make a court date in one of the 123 cases he carries, he shared the passion that motivates most public defenders to do what they do – and the frustration felt by those in Travis County who see their counterparts on the other side of the courtroom, or public defenders in other Texas counties, earning more money. “This is my community and I love it here,” Saulter said, “but it does feel like our work is undervalued.”

“I’m fine living in a one-bedroom apartment and with debt for the rest of my life,” Saulter told the Chronicle. “But Jesus Christ, I want to pay my bills. I want to be able to pay for what my kids need.”