Kelsi Stayart White

Kelsi Stayart White focuses on dispositive motions and appeals in state and federal court in all areas of commercial litigation. Before her focus on appellate work, Kelsi first gained substantial trial experience, including trying multiple commercial cases to juries and the bench in both state and federal court, handling an international arbitration, and seeking and defending temporary restraining orders and temporary injunctions. Because of that experience, she brings a trial lawyer’s practical perspective and communication skills to high-stakes motions, appellate briefs, and oral arguments. As a large part of her practice, Kelsi supports AZA’s trial teams in presenting critical legal issues to judges and handling the jury charge and other appellate issues at trial, including in AZA’s $22 million federal jury trial win on behalf of the Port of Houston Authority in March 2022 and its $32.5 million jury verdict in a complex, multi-party construction dispute in September 2023.

Kelsi has handled appeals of all types in both state court and the Fifth Circuit, including interlocutory appeals, mandamus proceedings, and direct appeals, and has significant oral argument experience before the Texas Courts of Appeals and the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Some of her noteworthy wins include obtaining a precedent-setting reversal of a female firefighter client’s hostile work environment claim in the Fifth Circuit in 2022; defending the denial of an anti-SLAPP motion and frivolousness finding all the way up to the Texas Supreme Court, resulting in a six-figure fee award on remand; and securing reversal of a federal agency’s FOIA decision concerning a client’s confidential information.

Kelsi was named to the 2021-2025 lists of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for commercial litigation. This is a national peer review award developed by Best Lawyers in America to target associates for their outstanding professional excellence early in their careers. She was also named on the 2022 Texas Rising Stars list for her excellence in plaintiff civil litigation. Rising Stars, which is compiled by Thomson Reuters’ Texas Super Lawyers, honors leading attorneys age 40 and younger and those who have been in practice no more than 10 years.

Kelsi is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. She served as a law clerk for Judge Leslie H. Southwick, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. During law school she served as associate editor of the Texas Law Review, and interned for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tony M. Davis in Austin. She graduated with highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Texas at Austin. Kelsi is a Council Member for the Federal Practice Section of the HBA and is also actively involved in the Appellate Practice Section. She attends St. Martin’s Episcopal Church and is the proud mother of three children.