Attorney Wayne Roger Goralski is a Houston-based attorney, working as a criminal defense lawyer and handling civil litigation cases, has more than 27 years of experience as a former criminal justice professional with the Houston Police Department. Wayne is now honorably retired and practicing law as the owner of his own law office. Wayne Goralski spent 10 years working the streets of Houston as a Supervisor and a Police Officer, and 17 additional years as a Squad and Division Commander. Wayne Goralski worked for several years as the Supervising Staff Attorney, in the Chief's Command for the Chief of Police. Wayne Goralski has been a licensed Texas attorney for 18 years, since 1997.
Attorney Wayne Goralski has handled cases for clients in numerous Texas Courts including the Harris County Civil, Criminal, Family, and Juvenile Courts, Montgomery County District Court, and the Galveston County Court. Attorney Goralski has represented clients in various city courts, including the cities of Houston, Pasadena, Baytown, Bellaire, League City, Pearland, Seabrook, Stafford, Sugarland, Tomball, and the Woodlands. Wayne Goralski has also represented clients in the Justice of the Peace Courts in Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Galveston, Brazoria and Wharton Counties. Attorney Wayne Goralski, was a highly decorated officer, earning numerous commendations over the years and promotion through the ranks as a Houston Police Officer, Police Sergeant, Police Lieutenant, Police Captain. He served for several years as Supervising Staff Attorney for the Chief of Police. Now honorably retired from the police department as a Captain, Wayne continues to work within the legal justice system as a private attorney.
Attorney Wayne Goralski has extensive knowledge and advocacy experience with a wide variety of legal hearings, investigations, pre-trial and trial procedures in various forums including federal and state civil trials, labor arbritrations, criminal trials, wrecker hearings, property lien and demolition hearings, and municipal court trials. Whether you need a criminal lawyer, a divorce lawyer, an employment lawyer or a car accident lawyer, Wayne has the experience. Wayne Goralski is also admitted to practice in federal court before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Wayne earned a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree, B. B. A. Finance, from the University of Houston, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence, J.D., from South Texas College of Law. As a Houston criminal defense attorney, Wayne brings a broad set of skills and experiences to the legal profession and to criminal law and defense work in particular. As a Police Lieutenant/Supervising Staff Attorney in the Chief’s Command, Wayne supervised attorneys responsible for the Houston Police Department’s Disciplinary Action Unit, Internal Affairs Review Squad and Health and Safety Unit. These staff attorneys reviewed and provided legal counsel to the Chief of Police regarding all aspects of the department’s legal affairs and actions in the legal environment, including adherence to the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure and Texas Rules of Evidence, Texas Penal Code, federal and state civil rights, local government code, government code, federal and state contracts, labor contracts, police tort and civil liability, Freedom of Information Act, Texas Open Records Act, employment law, Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, Equal Employment Opportunity Act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Texas Workers Compensation Act, contract arbitration, and municipal ordinances. Wayne Goralski also served as legal counsel to the Administrative Personnel Committee on sensitive employment law matters regarding physical and mental fitness for duty.
Wayne Goralski, served as the Administrative Lieutenant for the Burglary and Theft Division, the HPD’s largest investigative division, with administrative and operational responsibilities for the division, including the review through the intake section of all arrests with holds for property crimes such as burglary, felony theft, misdemeanor theft, burglary of a motor vehicle, criminal mischief, financial crimes, forgery, insufficient funds, credit card fraud, and identity theft. Additionally, as a Lieutenant, Attorney Goralski was appointed a term on the Police Accident Review Board, responsible for the review and recommendation to the Chief of Police of all police car accident investigations. As the Department's Grant Coordinator, Wayne Goralski, applied for and secured approximately $60 million in grant funding from federal and state sources. These included grants from the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S., D.O.J.), Office of Justice Programs, Community Oriented Policing Services (C.O.P.S.), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), High Intensity Drug Traffic Area (HIDTA) Grants, Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, Automobile Burglary and Theft Prevention Authority (ABTPA), Houston Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), and Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force. Wayne served on the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (CJAC). As Grant Unit Commander, he had responsibility for grant writing and ensuring contract compliance, while guiding the Houston Police Department’s Grant Section through successful U. S. and Texas Department of Justice audits. Wayne Goralski coordinated grant operation and oversight with the entire department including patrol and investigative divisions such as Homicide, Robbery, Burglary and Theft, Auto-Theft, Major Offenders, and the Family Violence Unit.
During his tenure as a Captain, Wayne Goralski, was the Division Commander of the Neighborhood Protection Corps, Clear Lake Patrol Division, Emergency Communications Division, and Vehicular Crimes (Traffic and Accident) Divisions. Captain Wayne Goralski’s last assignment before retirement was at the Vehicular Crimes Division, also more commonly known as Traffic and Accident Division. Wayne Goralski had oversight responsibility for the investigation of all fatality crashes, catastrophic crashes, crashes on the freeways, and Houston Police Department and Houston Fire Department fleet car crashes, as well as investigation of the offenses of Fail to Stop and Give Information, and Failed to Stop and Render Aid. Related crimes investigated and presented to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office include Driving While Intoxicated, DWI laws, Intoxication Manslaughter, Intoxication Assault. Attorney Wayne Goralski provided supervisory oversight to crash investigators, the Crash Reconstruction Unit, the Hit and Run Investigations Unit, and the Driving While Intoxicated Hold Desk. Additionally, Wayne Goralski had division oversight of the Auto-Dealers Detail. The Auto-Dealers Squad responsibilities included regulation of motor vehicle dealers, auto repair, vehicle storage facilities and wrecker driver licensing. Additionally, the division assisted coordination with the Texas Department of Transportation for the review, correction and receipt, on an annual basis, of nearly 100,000 car and truck accident reports from the Houston Police Department.
During his tenure as Captain, Attorney Wayne Goralski was engaged with several large technological projects. He was a ranking member on a committee to evaluate, grade and recommend bids to provide the Houston Police Department a new record management system to manage the immense data recording, storage and retrieval needs of the department, replacing the old mainframe system, as well as jail management and mobile field reporting systems. He reviewed, graded and ranked several bids from major national and international corporations, resulting in the awarding of a $14 million project to Tiburon. Having worked as the Captain of the Emergency Communications Division, he is intimately familiar with the Northrup Grumman Computer Aided Dispatch System, which processes, stores and provides record retrieval for over two million calls for service annually. Additionally, Captain Goralski served on a Houston Emergency Center/Motorola committee to help prepare for the installation of a new $140 million-dollar Emergency Radio Network. The above is only a brief overview of Lawyer Wayne Goralski’s extensive criminal justice, police administration and legal experience.
Education
•South Texas College Law, Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.), May 1997
•Dean’s List
•Highest Grade Award — Professional Responsibility
•University of Houston, Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.), Finance, May 1991
Bar Admissions
•State Bar of Texas, November 1997
•U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, 2006
Certifications
•Master Peace Officer Certification (Texas Commission Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education), Intermediate and Basic Peace Officer Certification
•FAA-Commercial Pilot — multi-engine land and instrument rated
•Certified Flight Instructor, instrument rated (CFII, not current and expired)
Associations
•State Bar of Texas
•State Bar of Texas- Litigation Section
•State Bar of Texas- Criminal Justice Section
•State Bar of Texas- Family Law Section
•College of the State Bar of Texas
•Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association
•Houston Police Officers Union (HPOU), retired lifetime member
