Messina Madson

Messina Madson has devoted her career to criminal litigation and criminal justice reform, with more than a decade at the Dallas DA’s Office and now as a partner at Madson Castello, PLLC, a criminal defense firm in Dallas. 
Named Prosecutor of the Year at the DA’s Office in 2015, Messina led office-wide litigation training before being promoted to the highest non-elected position as First Assistant to the DA.

Messina created the largest DA-run diversion unit in the nation, established the DA-in-schools program, and oversaw more than 200 attorneys and 500 total employees.

Known by her peers as an excellent negotiator and trial attorney, Messina has more than 200 jury trials to her credit and continues her commitment to criminal justice as a defense attorney. Knowing how a criminal record can adversely affect a person for a lifetime, Messina devotes her skills and experience to proactive and aggressive representation of her clients, providing creative legal counsel, with the highest ethical standards, to achieve the best possible results. 
As a leader in criminal justice reform, Messina has been a guest lecturer at SMU’s Dedman School of Law, the UNT School of Law, and Texas A&M School of Law. She also has served as a legal commentator for local news outlets such as Fox 4 News and WFAA.

Messina focuses on state criminal cases including allegations of murder, robbery, sexual assault, stalking, theft, drugs, family violence, organized crime, assault, driving while intoxicated, and protective orders. She graduated from the SMU Dedman School of Law.