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Hargrave Family Law: The Dallas Family Law Attorney Who Co-Authored the State Bar’s Own Book on Collaborative Divorce

Hargrave Family Law is a Dallas family law attorney boutique built around collaborative divorce specifically — led by a co-author of the State Bar of Texas’s own how-to book on the method, “Collaborative Law – Start to Finish.”

Hargrave Family Law — Dallas Family Law Attorney At a Glance

Sources: hargravefamilylaw.com (firm website), Super Lawyers, D Magazine. Compiled August 2026.

Origin: From Litigation to Collaborative Practice

Jennifer Stanton Hargrave earned her J.D. from SMU’s Dedman School of Law in 1995 after a B.A. in Political Science from UC Davis in 1992. She began her career at a litigation firm and then as in-house counsel for a financial services company before turning her practice exclusively to family law in 2006, per her own biography. She co-founded a Dallas family law firm in November 2013, then left to start her current firm, Hargrave Family Law, as sole owner in October 2017.

Hargrave is board certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and has built a specific specialty inside collaborative divorce — a non-litigation model in which both spouses and their attorneys formally commit to resolving the divorce outside of court, with those attorneys agreeing to withdraw if the case goes to trial. She co-authored Collaborative Law – Start to Finish, published by TexasBar Books (the State Bar of Texas’s own publishing arm) in 2014, and has taught collaborative law training at conferences and statewide programs — credentials that mark her as a source on the method rather than simply a practitioner of it.

Where the Firm Concentrates

The firm practices family law exclusively, with the clearest specialty in collaborative divorce specifically, alongside high-net-worth divorce, child custody, child support, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, and military, international, and LGBTQ+ divorce matters. The firm’s own materials are explicit that Hargrave remains “a seasoned litigator as well,” prepared for courtroom advocacy when collaboration isn’t appropriate or breaks down — the firm doesn’t claim to avoid litigation altogether, only to prioritize the non-adversarial model where it’s viable. Readers comparing options can see how this profile fits alongside other Family Law & Divorce attorneys covered on Awesome Attorneys.

Notable Work

As with other family law practices, contested and collaborative case outcomes alike are typically confidential rather than reported as dollar figures. The clearest documented evidence of Hargrave’s standing is her publication and speaking record: co-author of the State Bar of Texas’s own collaborative law manual, presenter at National Business Institute and SMU continuing-education programs, and moderator of a Bench Bar Conference “Judge’s Forum” panel — the kind of program that requires standing invitation from peers and the judiciary, not paid placement.

Client Voice

The firm’s published client feedback is consistent in theme around emotional support paired with legal competence:

“Working with Jennifer at Hargrave Law was a truly positive experience during a challenging time. Hargrave Law’s team not only provided outstanding legal expertise for my family but also showed genuine care and compassion throughout the entire process.” — client review, firm website

“I always felt heard and cared for by this team of professionals. 10 out of 10 would recommend to anyone dealing with a family-law issue!” — client review, firm website

These are drawn from the firm’s own published testimonials; Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify reviewer identities, a standard limitation across attorney-published testimonials.

Beyond the Courtroom

Hargrave’s community involvement centers on faith-based and civic institutions alongside bar service: she serves on the Board of Trustees for St. James Episcopal School, is active in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, and the firm’s materials note she supports domestic violence survivor organizations and children’s fine arts programs — a notable pairing given her divorce practice’s collaborative, lower-conflict orientation alongside support for survivors of a genuinely adversarial harm. Professionally, she is a member of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, the Dallas Bar Association Family Law Section, Collaborative Divorce Texas, the College of the State Bar of Texas, and has been a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation since 2017.

Recognition

The strongest credential is the TBLS board certification, tested and peer-evaluated. Her AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell (since 2012) is also peer-reviewed, as is her Super Lawyers “Top 50 Women Attorneys in Texas” (2014) selection. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Lawyers” inclusion since 2012, and the firm’s own Tier 1 ranking in U.S. News “Best Law Firms” since 2018, sit closer to the methodology-driven ranking-service end of the spectrum — a real and credible signal, but built on a different evaluative process than TBLS’s tested certification.

Texas Legal Backdrop

The same structural rules apply to any Texas family law matter, presented as general information and not legal advice, with one addition specific to this firm’s specialty. Texas requires six months’ domicile in the state and 90 days in the filing county before a divorce petition can be filed (Tex. Fam. Code § 6.301), and imposes a mandatory 60-day waiting period after filing before a divorce can be finalized, with a family-violence exception (Tex. Fam. Code § 6.702). Texas’s community property system presumes property and debt acquired during the marriage belongs to both spouses, subject to a “just and right” division (Tex. Fam. Code §§ 3.002–3.003). Divorce may proceed on the no-fault ground of insupportability (Tex. Fam. Code § 6.001). Custody is decided under a best-interest-of-the-child standard (Tex. Fam. Code ch. 153), and child support follows statutory guideline percentages (Tex. Fam. Code § 154.125). Collaborative law itself has a dedicated statutory framework in Texas (Tex. Fam. Code ch. 15, subchapter C), which formally recognizes collaborative family law agreements and the disqualification of collaborative counsel from any subsequent litigation in the same matter — the legal backbone of the model this firm specializes in.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Hargrave Family Law’s differentiator is genuine depth in a specific method rather than general family law competence: a State Bar-published co-author of the collaborative law manual, running a firm built around that model specifically, with litigation experience held in reserve rather than as the default. For a couple who wants to divorce without a courtroom fight and can both commit to the collaborative process in good faith, that specialized experience is a meaningful differentiator from a firm that offers mediation as one option among several.

The honest trade-off is that collaborative law only works when both spouses and both attorneys commit to it, and it isn’t the right fit for every case — particularly those involving significant power imbalance, concealment of assets, or family violence, where a more traditional litigation posture may better protect a client. Prospective clients should ask directly whether their specific situation is realistically suited to the collaborative model before choosing a firm on that basis alone.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys’ editorial team in August 2026. Primary source: the firm’s own published website (hargravefamilylaw.com), including its attorney biography and team pages. Secondary sources: Super Lawyers, D Magazine, FindLaw, and the Center for Divorce Management’s attorney directory. Where sources gave differing founding dates for the firm (2013 vs. 2017), the more detailed Super Lawyers biography — which distinguishes a 2013 co-founded firm from Hargrave’s current sole-owned firm started in 2017 — was treated as authoritative. The firm did not commission, pay for, or pre-approve this article. All credentials and claims are attributed to their sources; past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Facts, figures, and claims in this profile were independently researched from public sources as described in the Methodology & Sourcing section above and are current only as of the research date; they are subject to change without notice, and readers should confirm any detail directly with the firm before relying on it. This notice supplements, and does not replace, the Attorney Advertising Notice at the top of this profile.