Sue Ayers

Sue Ayers is an experienced trial lawyer. While she has handled hundreds of eminent domain cases in the last 14 years, she has also represented clients in a wide variety of civil matters ranging from breach of contract and fraudulent inducement to civil rights violations and wrongful death.

Sue has helped clients acquire thousands of parcels of property required for some of the most important infrastructure projects in Texas, including the first CREZ electric transmission line, the largest capital project in the history of Union Pacific Railroad, and the expansion of U.S. Highway 183 South in Austin. Her condemnor clients include municipalities, irrigation districts, river authorities, mobility authorities, electric transmission companies, Class I railroads, utilities, and common carrier pipelines.

Sue has also represented landowners all over Texas against the federal government and Texas Department of Transportation. She has helped churches, family-owned businesses, homeowners, and irrigation districts whose property was taken for the Border Wall, new road construction, or highway expansion.

• Represented Protestant at State Office of Administrative Hearings in waste water permitting case involving over 20 experts in hydrodynamic modeling, ecotoxicology, and marine ecology/biology.
• Condemnation counsel for Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority on expansion of U.S. Highway 183 South.
• Condemnation counsel for common carrier’s 719 mile-long natural gas liquids pipeline, crossing 29 counties.
• Condemnation counsel for longest single-certificated electric transmission line in Texas, crossing 671 parcels in 11 counties; project completed under budget and ahead of schedule, and selected as Top 10 Infrastructure Project in the United States by International Right of Way Magazine.
• Lead condemnation counsel for Union Pacific Railroad’s largest capital improvement project in the company’s 150-year history.

Recognition & Accolades

• Litigation / Appellate Award, Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association, 2024
• Texas Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers by Thomson Reuters, 2021-2023
• Texas Rising Star, Super Lawyers – Rising Stars by Thomson Reuters, 2007

Publications & Speeches

• Mo Money Mo Problems: Lawyers & Clients Suing Over Fee Agreements, TCWLA (2024)
• TxDot is About to Wreck Your Life: I-35 & Eminent Domain, TCWLA (2024)
• Making and Responding to Objections at Trial, Comal County Bar Association (2024)
• Effective Cross-Examination at SOAH: I Fought the Law…And the Law Won, UT Advanced Administrative Law Seminar (2021)