Sebastian Waisman

Sebastian Waisman represents Texas cities, counties, and special purpose districts when their decisions are challenged in court, from constitutional and civil rights suits to disputes over procurement and land use. He also advises public entities before such decisions are made, on the development reviews, procurements, and records requests that draw challenges in the first place.

Sebastian's public law practice began inside a city attorney's office. He advised elected and appointed officials directly on procurement, tax, real estate, utilities, and zoning, and represented the city in litigation arising from a major civil unrest event. He came away understanding what a city attorney's office can absorb and when it needs outside help.

He served as a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Janis L. Sammartino of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. He handles public entity litigation with the appeal in view from the first filing.

Sebastian was part of the team that defended a Texas county's bail-setting procedures against a federal constitutional challenge, winning en banc in the Fifth Circuit and defeating the plaintiffs' petition for certiorari. He co-authored an amicus brief for eleven state and local government organizations in the U.S. Supreme Court concerning federal cuts to subsidies promised to state and local issuers of Build America Bonds, work that earned the International Municipal Lawyers Association's Amicus Service Award. He represents a Texas city in a federal constitutional challenge to its minority- and women-owned business enterprise program, and he has advised public entities across Texas on platting, zoning, and eminent domain.

Such range, from a city council's procurement question to a brief in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, is what David & Stephens exists to offer: the same rigor applied at every level on which local government operates.