Jennifer Ryback

Background

About Jennifer Ryback

As a business litigator primarily, Jennifer works closely with clients to solve problems of all types and sizes. She has broad experience handling construction disputes, defending employers against wrongful termination and wage claims, pursuing and defending breach of contract cases, and handling a variety of disputes related to commercial real estate transactions. Jennifer also negotiates construction contracts, including various AIA forms, and advises construction clients on issues that arise from project start to finish. She also routinely advises clients on non-litigation employment law issues, including developing and updating employee handbooks and providing training on a number of topics, as well as negotiating executive compensation and severance agreements. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennifer has been called on by clients to offer advice on the multitude of employment law issues that arose and continue to arise related thereto. While in law school, Jennifer served as President of the SMU Student Bar Association. That tradition of leadership continued when Jennifer became involved in the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers (DAYL) when she began practicing in 2010, and in 2018, she served as the President of DAYL. Inspired by the Good, Better, Best poem she learned from her grandmother growing up, Jennifer focused on making young lawyers the “good, better, best” they can be, establishing the Second Chair Program, which gave an opportunity for young civil lawyers to sit second chair with seasoned criminal defense lawyers at trial, and developing the Continuing the Conversation Interview Series, which focused on keeping women lawyers in the pipeline to become equity partners and to obtain judicial positions. In 2020, Jennifer served as VP Awards Reception for the Dallas Women Lawyers Association (DWLA) and pivoted to change the format of the event from the traditional in-person gathering to a high-quality virtual production. She currently serves as VP Programming for DWLA and is working to bring more relevant and dynamic programming to DWLA’s members this year. Jennifer has been selected as a D Magazine "Best Lawyer" and to D Magazine’s “Best Lawyers Under 40." She has been named to the Texas Rising Stars list by Thomson Reuters as published in Texas Monthly from 2014 through 2022. Recently, Jennifer was awarded the Brenda Tso Rising Young Lawyer Award by the Texas Women Lawyers.