Meet Mario Moreno: Trial Attorney, Barton & Associates, Attorneys at Law

Texas State Bar Number: 24103128 | Licensed: November 3, 2017

Who is Mario Moreno, and Why Does His Background Matter to Your Criminal Case?

When someone is searching for a criminal defense attorney in San Antonio, they are usually looking for a specific combination of things: someone who knows the law deeply, someone who has actually been inside courtrooms fighting for defendants—not just watching from the sidelines—and someone who understands the community they are defending. Mario Moreno checks all three. He is a Trial Attorney at Barton & Associates, Attorneys at Law, a proud San Antonio native who graduated summa cum laude from a San Antonio university, earned his law degree cum laude from Texas Tech University School of Law with a concentration in Criminal Law and Innocence, gained his first trial experience defending clients in New Mexico courts as a public defender attorney, sharpened those skills at the Bexar County Public Defender’s Office after returning home, and built his private practice criminal defense career in San Antonio before joining Barton & Associates. He did not stumble into criminal defense—he studied it in college, concentrated in it during law school, chose it as his first job, and has been committed to it at every stage of his career since. For a person facing criminal charges in Bexar County or anywhere in South Texas, that depth of focused, deliberate preparation is exactly what their defense demands.

Credentials at a Glance

• Full Name: Mario G. Moreno
• Title: Trial Attorney
• Firm: Barton & Associates, Attorneys at Law, PLLC
• Texas State Bar Number: 24103128
• Texas Bar License Date: November 3, 2017
• Bar Status: Active, Good Standing
• Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
• Primary Practice Area: Criminal Defense

Education: Summa Cum Laude Undergraduate, Cum Laude Law School, and a Rare Criminal Law Concentration

Mario Moreno’s academic record is not simply impressive—it is directly relevant to the quality of representation he delivers to criminal defense clients. Every credential he earned was chosen with criminal defense in mind, creating a foundation of legal knowledge that most defense attorneys never receive.

• B.A., Criminology and Criminal Justice — Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, graduated Summa Cum Laude. Graduating summa cum laude requires a grade point average at the very top of the graduating class—typically a 3.9 or higher. For a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice, this means Mario Moreno did not simply pass courses covering the criminal justice system—he mastered them at an elite academic level before he ever set foot in a law school classroom.
• Juris Doctorate (J.D.) — Texas Tech University School of Law, graduated Cum Laude, with a Degree Concentration in Criminal Law and Innocence. Graduating cum laude from law school signals academic performance in the top tier of the graduating class. The Criminal Law and Innocence concentration at Texas Tech is a specialized curriculum—the same program completed by fellow Barton & Associates attorney George Manning—that goes beyond standard criminal procedure to examine wrongful conviction, the causes of unjust outcomes, and the legal mechanisms available to prevent and correct them. An attorney trained in innocence-focused criminal law approaches every case with a sharpened skepticism toward the prosecution’s narrative and a deeper understanding of how evidence can be misread, how identifications can be unreliable, and how the system can fail a defendant when an attorney is not paying careful enough attention.

That combination—a summa cum laude undergraduate degree in criminology, a cum laude law degree, and a criminal law and innocence concentration—represents one of the most focused and academically distinguished preparation paths for criminal defense practice of any attorney currently working in San Antonio.

Career History: From New Mexico Public Defender to Bexar County Courts

Mario Moreno began his legal career the way the most serious criminal defense attorneys begin theirs—in a public defender’s office, handling real cases with real consequences from day one. There are no soft-landing entry-level assignments in a public defender’s office. Clients are counting on you, cases go to trial, and attorneys develop genuine courtroom instincts under real pressure rather than in simulated environments.

Career Timeline

• Associate Attorney — Law Offices of the Public Defender, Ruidoso, New Mexico. Mario spent the first two years of his legal career defending clients in Lincoln County and surrounding New Mexico courts, gaining extensive jury trial experience across a broad range of criminal charges including DWI, family violence, drug offenses, property crimes and sex offenses—the core categories of criminal defense that define most private defense practices in Texas.
• Associate Attorney — Bexar County Public Defender’s Office, San Antonio, Texas. After returning to his hometown, Mario continued his public defender work inside Bexar County’s own courts—gaining direct, firsthand familiarity with the local judges, prosecutors, court staff and procedures that his clients now benefit from when he represents them in those same courtrooms.
• Criminal Defense Attorney — Dunham & Jones Attorneys at Law, San Antonio, Texas. Mario transitioned to private criminal defense practice at one of Texas’s best-known statewide criminal defense firms, expanding his caseload and refining his skills in a high-volume, competitive private defense environment.
• Trial Attorney — Barton & Associates, Attorneys at Law, San Antonio, Texas (current). Mario now brings his full preparation—the academic credentials, the public defender trial experience, the Bexar County courtroom familiarity, and the private practice discipline—to the Barton & Associates team.

The progression from New Mexico public defender to Bexar County Public Defender to private practice to Barton & Associates is not accidental. It is the trajectory of a criminal defense attorney who has been deliberately building the breadth of courtroom experience and local institutional knowledge that effective defense practice in San Antonio requires.

Why the Criminal Law and Innocence Concentration Matters to Your Defense

Prospective clients sometimes ask what the difference is between hiring a general practice attorney who handles criminal cases and hiring an attorney whose entire academic and professional preparation has been focused on criminal defense. The Criminal Law and Innocence concentration at Texas Tech University School of Law is one concrete answer. This specialized curriculum trains attorneys not only in criminal procedure, evidence and constitutional law—the standard curriculum any law school graduate receives—but specifically in the causes and patterns of wrongful conviction. This includes training in how eyewitness identification errors occur and how to challenge them, how forensic evidence can be presented misleadingly by the prosecution and how to expose those weaknesses, how false confessions happen and how to present that context to a jury, how tunnel vision in law enforcement investigations leads to injustice and how to demonstrate it to a judge, and how systemic failures in the criminal justice system create pressure toward guilty pleas that an innocent person should never accept. For clients who are facing charges they did not commit, this training is the difference between an attorney who simply processes the case and an attorney who is equipped to fight for the truth. For clients who did make a mistake and are facing disproportionate charges, this training sharpens the attorney’s ability to identify overcharging, challenge evidence and negotiate outcomes that reflect the actual facts rather than the prosecution’s preferred narrative.

What San Antonio Roots Mean for Your Bexar County Criminal Defense Case

Mario Moreno was born and raised in San Antonio. He attended Our Lady of the Lake University—a San Antonio institution founded in 1895 on the city’s northwest side. He returned to San Antonio to work at the Bexar County Public Defender’s Office after his New Mexico experience. He built his private practice career here. He knows this city the way only a person who has grown up in it and staked their professional career in it can know it. In criminal defense, that local knowledge matters. It means Mario Moreno is familiar with the culture and tendencies of the Bexar County criminal district courts. It means he understands the communities his clients come from—the circumstances, the pressures and the context that a defense strategy may need to account for. It means that when he walks into a Bexar County courtroom, he is not a stranger to that environment. He belongs to it, and so do his clients.

Areas of Practice

Mario Moreno focuses exclusively on criminal defense at Barton & Associates, representing clients facing the full spectrum of misdemeanor and felony charges in San Antonio, Bexar County and throughout South Texas.

Criminal Defense

• DWI defense — first-, second-, and third-offense DWI, felony DWI, DWI with child, DWI with open container, intoxication assault, and intoxication manslaughter
• Drug crimes — possession of controlled substances, possession of marijuana, delivery and manufacture of controlled substances, drug-free zone enhancements, and asset forfeiture defense
• Felony offenses including aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, evading arrest, and weapon charges
• Family violence and assault family violence defense — including misdemeanor and felony family violence, impeding breath or circulation, and violation of protective order
• Sex crimes defense — sexual assault, indecency with a minor, improper relationship, and online solicitation
• Property crimes — theft, burglary of a vehicle, burglary of a habitation, criminal mischief, and fraud
• Misdemeanor defense — assault, criminal trespassing, harassment, deadly conduct, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct
• Weapon charges — unlawful carrying of a weapon, felon in possession of a firearm, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
• Probation violations, motions to revoke probation, and motions to adjudicate
• Expunction and nondisclosure proceedings in Texas
• Driver’s license suspension defense and occupational license applications

About Mario Moreno: The Person Behind the Practice

Mario Moreno is a San Antonio native in the fullest sense — born here, educated here, and committed to serving this community with the same diligence that defined his academic career. Outside the practice of law, he is an avid hiker and camper, pursuits that reflect the discipline, physical endurance, and love of challenge that also define how he approaches difficult criminal cases. An attorney who chooses to spend time in the wilderness — navigating terrain that requires preparation, situational awareness, and the willingness to keep moving when conditions get difficult — brings those same instincts into the courtroom. Mario Moreno’s clients consistently describe him as someone who works harder on their case than they expected and communicates more clearly than they hoped. That is the standard he has set for himself since the day he graduated summa cum laude from Our Lady of the Lake University, and it is the standard he maintains for every client he represents at Barton & Associates.

How to Reach Mario Moreno and Barton & Associates

If you are facing a criminal charge in San Antonio or anywhere in Bexar County—whether it is a first-offense DWI, a drug possession allegation, an assault charge or a serious felony—the time to act is now. Mario Moreno and the full legal team at Barton & Associates offer free consultations and are available evenings, weekends and holidays.

• San Antonio (Main Office): 115 Camaron St, San Antonio, TX 78205 | 210-500-0000
• Austin (By Appt): 316 W 12th St Suite 400, Austin, TX 78701 | 512-THE-FIRM (843-3476)
• Corpus Christi (By Appointment): 5110 Wilkinson Dr Suite 210, Corpus Christi, TX 78415 | 361-800-6780
• Email: Info@BartonLawOffice.com

The firm serves clients throughout Bexar, Travis, Nueces, Comal, Guadalupe, Bandera, Medina, and Kendall Counties, and across South and Central Texas.

Main Category: Legal Team
Barton & Associates, Attorneys at Law