Third Court of Appeals

Place 4

Prior to being elected to Texas’ Third Court of Appeals in 2022, Rosa Theofanis served as an Assistant District Attorney for Travis County, including ten years in the appellate division.  There, she represented the State of Texas in appeals of convictions for felony and juvenile offenses committed in Travis County, as well as in appeals of civil suits affecting parental rights, original proceedings, and post-conviction matters.

Justice Theofanis began her career in public service as an Assistant County Attorney for Travis County, and subsequently worked for a non-profit agency in Washington, D.C. providing civil legal services to survivors of domestic violence.  

Justice Theofanis has prosecuted more than twenty jury trials with successful verdicts in both criminal and civil cases.  She has handled appeals before nine of Texas' intermediate courts of appeals and has presented oral argument in the courts of appeals, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Justice Theofanis is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and in the United States Supreme Court.

Justice Theofanis received her bachelor's degree with a concentration in Comparative Literature from Brown University, where she was a Rose Writing Fellow and spent her junior year studying at the University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain. 

Justice Theofanis attended the University of Texas School of Law, where she was awarded an Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Law and interned in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.  Working with lawyers from legal systems around the globe gave Justice Theofanis a grounding in fundamental precepts of law that continues to inform her career.

Justice Theofanis has served as an adjunct professor, teaching a course on legal writing at the University of Texas School of Law for three years.  She has presented at professional conferences, including the Dawson Conference on Criminal Appeals.  

Justice Theofanis, her husband, and their two children live in Austin, Texas.  She enjoys running, reading and exploring the Hill Country with her family.