If you’ve been charged with a crime in Austin Texas, it is in your best interest to contact a renowned and highly rated lawyer. For those unsure of where to begin looking, Jeffrey Connely is a decorated Austin Texas based criminal defense lawyer providing top rated representation for a variety of complex criminal cases. Here’s some background on Jeffrey Connelly’s work and achievements that highlight why he is one of the best criminal defense lawyers in Austin Texas.
Jeffrey Connelly’s Background:
Jeffrey Connelly was born the son and grandson of practicing lawyers, and seeing his family’s positive impact on the community, Connelly knew from a young age that he wanted to continue his family’s legacy. Connelly first graduated from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee in 2008, earning a Bachelor of Arts in French and philosophy before moving on to the Georgia State College of Law where he earned his Juris Doctor in 2012 and became licensed to practice law in Georgia and Texas. Connelly has also received training in commercial arbitration from the Linz Austin Summer Program at Johannes Kepler University Linz and can arbitrate various business disputes.
Upon graduating from law school, Connelly was eager to gain experience working jury trials and after becoming a member of the Georgia State Bar, began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. As an assistant DA, Connelly worked in the Complex Trial Division where he was responsible for prosecuting a myriad of serious and violent felony offenses such as armed robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and aggravated battery. During his tenure in the Complex Trial Division, Connelly amassed hundreds of hours in the courtroom and acted as the first chair attorney during countless successful jury trials.
In 2015, Connelly moved on to working in private practices, and began working at a prominent firm in Atlanta, where he represented individuals charged with serious crimes, but started to focus more on civil litigation. After the birth of his second daughter, Connelly and his wife decided to relocate their family to Texas, where Connelly soon became a member of the Texas State Bar. Connelly began working at a well established law firm in Austin Texas, where he quickly became a well respected criminal defense lawyer. Soon after moving to Austin Texas, Connelly and Rick Cofer co-counseled together on several cases and bonded over their similar ideals for a modern law firm- one that was technologically forward and client centered. In 2020, Connelly and Rick decided to start Cofer and Connelly, PLLC together, where Connelly leads the civil litigation practice specializing in family law and personal injury cases.
Since transitioning to an Austin TX criminal defense lawyer, Connelly has received several accolades for his work with Cofer and Connelly. In 2020, Connelly was named in the Top 40 Under 40 Civil Plaintiff Lawyers list and went on to win The Austin Chronicle’s Best Lawyer of Austin in both 2021 and 2022. For his earlier work in Georgia, Connelly was recognized among Georgia Trend Magazine’s Legal Elite.
With his years of experience, Connelly is well known as an expert trial lawyer with an extreme level of preparedness in court and willingness to take any case to trial and win. Throughout his career as a criminal defense lawyer, Connelly has been admitted to a variety of highly prestigious courts including The Supreme Court of Texas, The Supreme Court of Georgia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the United States District Court for the North District of Georgia, and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Connelly is also an active member of the Austin community and is a member of the Austin Bar Association, the Austin Young Lawyers Association, and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. Outside of his passion for law, Connelly is an avid environmentalist and serves on the board of directors for the Hill Country Conservancy which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving natural resources in Texas’ Hill Country through conservation programs, and community education and engagement to promote a conservationist ethic.
