About Me
I am Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. I handle inheritance disputes all across Texas.
My Story
When I got out of the Navy, I knew I wanted to finish college. After graduating and working for a couple of years, I went to law school.
I always thought that I would do Labor Law, which was related to my previous job, but as luck would have it, I never handled a single Labor Law case! Instead, I went to work for a firm that dealt with general practice. I learned quickly that my interest was helping people who had been hurt or taken advantage of, so my practice turned to Personal Injury Trial Law.
It wasn’t long before I opened my own practice and became Board-Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Personal Injury Trial Law was exciting, and I threw myself into it. I enjoyed representing my clients in court, fighting for their rights.
As all things must pass, so too did my excitement about Personal Injury Trial Law. After many years, things become routine. I was not excited as I was before. Even routine cases required my best work so that my clients knew that they were getting the best I had to offer. But I needed a change.
During my many years of practice, I had handled a few inheritance disputes. They were exciting, new, and rekindled that fire that I needed. So, I slowly shut down my injury practice and started limiting the cases that I took to cases involving inheritance disputes. Now, my practice is limited to litigation involving inheritance disputes. I don’t handle personal injury cases unless they are related to an inheritance dispute.
My background in litigation and being Board-Certified is an excellent foundation for my litigation practice in inheritance disputes. I don’t prepare wills, don’t do estate planning, and don’t do the administrative work of filing wills for probate if there is no dispute. Many attorneys in the probate field do those things, but they don’t have a background in litigation. My practice is limited to litigation where there are two sides to a dispute, and a court trial is required or may be needed.
Our Mission & Vision
I have over 40 years of experience handling litigation in Texas. I am a past chair of the Texas State Bar Computer & Technology Section. I was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court to be an ex officio member of the JUDICIAL COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY that brought e-filling to Texas. I have published articles in the Texas Bar Journal and the American Bar Association GPSolo journal.
Please explore our website and our blog to see if we can be of service to you and we encourage you to contact us if you would like to discuss these issues.
What we do
We represent you knowing that inheritance disputes are private and painful family matters. These cases are complicated and are intertwined with those painful family issues. We know this is a stressful time for you. We strive to obtain the quickest and best results possible so that you can get this troubling episode behind you. We may need to try the case to a jury or we may be able to achieve, with your permission, a settlement without a trial. Either way, you will be involved and informed.
We handle cases in estate and trust disputes including will contests, heirship proceedings, mental competency issues, undue influence, right to an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty and related claims, We have handled cases throughout Texas from South Texas to deep East Texas to Northwest Texas near the Oklahoma border and in between.
Complicated and Unsettling
Inheritance disputes can be complicated and unsettling but we can guide you through the process
- We’ll talk through your options with you
- We’ll check the size and scope of the estate
- We’ll listen, and we’ll work with you to help you get what you’re entitled to
- We’ll keep you regularly updated all the way along and ensure that your claim is managed as efficiently as possible
I am a litigation attorney
I am a Texas attorney. I graduated from SMU School of Law. I am Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. I handle cases throughout Texas. My principle office is in Lantana, Texas in the DFW area. The State Bar of Texas, Board of Legal Specialization recognizes attorneys in various areas of law, who because of experience, training and knowledge are awarded certificates of special competence. There are over 70,000 lawyers in Texas but only 10% are Board Certified.
There is no certification in litigation of contested probate matters. There is one certification in the non-litigation practice of Estate Planning and Probate and two in litigation areas: Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law. This office handles litigation involving contested probate matters and their associated torts. We do not handle the creation of wills and trust that an estate planning attorney would normally handle nor do we handle probate administration not involving contested litigation.
I am the primary author of this site and of the Inheritance Laws blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting inheritance disputes in Texas.