Francesca A. Di Troia co-chairs KRW Lawyers’ Consumer & Complex Litigation Group. Her litigation practice spans consumer, constitutional, insurance, and tort matters in state and federal courts throughout Texas, together with complex discovery, and appellate work before state and federal courts of appeal. She has tried more than twenty cases to judgment as lead counsel—including jury trials—in matters involving constitutional, consumer, insurance, and tort claims. She co-authors the casebook from which Texas consumer law is taught and the practitioner treatise from which Texas discovery is practiced. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Law where she teaches trial advocacy, consumer law, and coaches mock trial teams, and a frequent CLE presenter on discovery disputes and civil procedure.
Before joining KRW Lawyers, Francesca was a trial lawyer at Barron & Newburger, P.C. in Austin, Texas—a national creditor’s rights law firm—representing both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts and, prior to that, served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Texas Attorney General’s Tort Litigation Division, where she tried and defended governmental entities in tort, employment, and constitutional litigation in trial courts and through the Fifth Circuit. Her courtroom experience informs a practice that includes class action defense and complex discovery disputes and she has authored briefs in the Supreme Court of Texas and United States Courts of Appeal.
Francesca is co-author of Texas Consumer Law: Cases & Materials (Imprimatur Press, 2025–2026 ed.), written with Richard M. Alderman—the Dwight Olds Chair in Law and Professor of Law, Emeritus at the University of Houston Law Center and founding director of its Center for Consumer Law. Her textbook is organized around the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and it has taught a generation of Texas lawyers about the statute. She also co-authors Texas Discovery: A Practitioner’s Guide to Taking and Resisting Discovery Under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure (Full Court Press, 2026), the standard reference used by Texas trial courts and attorneys for guidance on Texas discovery rules.
Few lawyers in the state can say they write the authority, teach the authority, and try the jury cases under it. Francesca is one of them. And, her experience gives her unique insight and strategies regarding discovery, trial, and appellate from both sides of consumer litigation docket. That vantage point is an asset to KRW’s clients: she understands how corporate defendants evaluate liability exposure, and what issues they concede, litigate, and resolve. She is also a sixth-generation Texan and black belt in Judo; she brings the same discipline to courtrooms that she brings to the mat.
Published Decisions
- Met Water Vista Ridge, LP v. Blue Water Sys., LP, 717 S.W.3d 901 (Tex. App. 2025)
- Counsel for appellant in litigation arising from the $3.4 billion Vista Ridge pipeline project, which supplies groundwater to San Antonio. Appealed trial court judgment and permanent injunction concerning assignment of disputed groundwater leases. The Fourteenth Court of Appeals sustained, in part, challenge to scope of injunction—narrowing it so it no longer reached a non-party—and affirmed remainder of the judgment as modified.
- In re Piatt Servs. Int’l, 493 S.W.3d 276 (Tex. App. 2016)
- Defeated mandamus petition seeking to void trial court’s order; granted real party in interest a new trial. Third Court of Appeals held that boilerplate “Mother Hubbard” clause in the final judgment did not operate as a written order overruling pending new-trial motions—so the court retained plenary power when it later granted a new trial. The court of appeals denied mandamus and vacated its stay, leaving the new trial in place. The opinion is a published authority on the duration of a trial court's plenary power under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 329b
Honors & Recognition
- Rising Star, civil litigation—Super Lawyers (2023, 2024)
- Austin's Top Attorneys—Austin Monthly (2024, 2025)
Teaching
- Adjunct Professor, University of Texas School of Law
- Consumer Protection Law; Trial Advocacy.
- Mock-trial coach.
Publications
- Texas Consumer Law: Cases & Materials (Imprimatur Press, 2025–2026 ed.)—co-author, with Richard M. Alderman.
- Texas Discovery: A Practitioner’s Guide to Taking and Resisting Discovery Under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure (Full Court Press, 2026)—co-author, with Robert K. Wise, Kennon L. Wooten, and Joseph P. McDuffie.
- Symposium: The “Best of” Litigation Update 2024: Texas Civil Procedure Update 2021-2023, 107 The Advocate 167.
Selected Presentations
- Civil Procedure Update, 40th Annual Litigation Update Institute (Jan. 18, 2024).
- Discovery 101, Austin Young Lawyers Association (Dec. 5, 2023).
- Discovery Disputes and Avoiding Traps, State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting (June 22, 2023).
- Discovery Update, 18th Annual Soaking Up Some CLE: A South Texas Litigation Course on May 11, 2023
- Attorney Eyes Only: Confidentiality and Protective Orders in Business Litigation, 36th Annual Advanced Evidence and Discovery (April 14, 2023 & May 19, 2023)
- Disasters, Profits & Profiteering, 18th Annual Advanced Consumer & Commercial Law, (Sept. 23, 2022).
- Filing an Insurance Claim; Barbara Jordan Inns of Court (March 12, 2022).
- TTCA - Waive Goodbye to Other Claims, State Bar of Texas Government Law 101 CLE (July 28, 2021).
- Electoral College, Barbara Jordan Inns of Court (Nov. 10, 2021).
- Discovery: Attempts to Ease the Bane of Our Existence, Austin Couch Bar (March 30, 2020).
- Is It Hemp or Weed, Barbara Jordan Inns of Court on (Nov. 12, 2019).
- Social Media and Evolving Legal Standards, Barbara Jordan Inns of Court (Feb. 6, 2018).
Bar admissions
State: Texas
U.S. Courts of Appeals: Third and Fifth Circuits
U.S. District Courts: Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Districts of Texas
Education
- University of Texas School of Law—Juris Doctor. Research Assistant, Professor Charles M. Silver & Professor Lynn A. Baker; Mock Trial: Costello Team, AAJ Team.
- Texas State University—B.A.
News Articles
- 5th Circ. Told Arrestees Deserve Counsel At Bail Hearings, Law360 (Aug. 4, 2024).
- 3rd Circ. Says Bankruptcy Claim Didn't Break Small Loan Law, Law360 (Feb. 7, 2024).
- Galveston County, Texas: Judges Appeal Decision in Booth Suit, Class Action Reporter (Nov. 12, 2019).
- Youth Justice Alliance: Board member; 2021-present—nonprofit supporting high-school legal clinics and expanding fellowship opportunities for aspiring first-generation lawyers.
- Barbara Jordan Inn of Court: former Team Leader, Program Director, Director of Community Involvement, Membership Chair; 2015-present.
- A sixth-generation Texan and has black belt in Judo.
Community, Organizations & Memberships
- State Bar of Texas—Past Public Affairs Committee; Women in the Profession Committee.
- Youth Justice Alliance: Board member; 2021-present—nonprofit supporting high-school legal clinics and expanding fellowship opportunities for aspiring first-generation lawyers.
- Barbara Jordan Inn of Court: former Team Leader, Program Director, Director of Community Involvement, Membership Chair; 2015-present.
- A sixth-generation Texan and has black belt in Judo.
Contact
Email: Francesca@KRWlawyers.com
Phone: (210) 490-1109
Office: 701 Brazos Street, Suite 710, Austin, Texas 78701