ATTORNEY ADVERTISING NOTICE. This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys’ editorial team. It was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed prior to publication by the firm profiled. All case results, recoveries, and recognitions described below are attributed to their sources. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter. This article is for general information only and is not legal advice; reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship.

Duffee + Eitzen: The Dallas Family Law Attorney Firm With a Former District Judge on Staff

Duffee + Eitzen is a Dallas family law attorney boutique co-founded by two attorneys who each built a full career elsewhere first — one in large-firm business litigation, the other now a nationally recognized collaborative-law author — and later added a partner who spent nearly 25 years on the Dallas family court bench.

Duffee + Eitzen — Dallas Family Law Attorney At a Glance

Sources: duffeeandeitzen.com (firm website), Super Lawyers, State Bar of Texas attorney directory, D Magazine. Compiled August 2026.

Origin: Three Careers Before One Firm

Duffee + Eitzen’s two founding partners each arrived at family law from different starting points. Lisa Duffee spent years as a partner at two large Dallas law firms handling complex business and real estate litigation before transitioning to family law in 2000 — a background the firm’s materials note gives her a distinct advantage on the complex property issues that often accompany high-profile divorces. Melinda Eitzen, a University of Houston Law School graduate, built her reputation on the forefront of the collaborative law movement in Texas, co-authoring two books on divorce (Divorce The Collaborative Way: Is It The Way For You?, 2009, and Considering Divorce? Critical Things You Need To Know, 2013) and serving as past president of the Collin County Bar Association.

The firm later added Hon. Marilea W. Lewis as a partner — a hire that brought a genuinely uncommon credential: nearly 25 years on the Dallas family court bench, first as Master/Referee of the 305th District Court (1986–1992), then Associate Judge and ultimately Judge of the 330th District Court (1992–2010). Lewis holds TBLS board certification in Family Law, is qualified to sit as a private judge given her judicial background, and is a member of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists.

Where the Firm Concentrates

The firm practices family law exclusively: divorce (litigated and collaborative), high-net-worth property division, child custody and modification, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, and LGBTQIA+ family law. A distinctive service line is private judging and mediation — Lewis’s judicial background qualifies her to serve as a private judge, an option some high-conflict or time-sensitive family law matters use to resolve disputes outside the standard court docket. 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, case outcomes are typically confidential rather than published as dollar figures. The clearest evidence of the firm’s standing is Eitzen’s published, peer-facing work: her two co-authored divorce books were written with a certified financial planner and licensed therapists as co-authors, reflecting a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to collaborative divorce rather than legal advice alone. Eitzen was also named Litigator of the Year by the Collin County Bar Association (2012) — notable given her practice’s collaborative-law emphasis, since the award recognizes litigation skill specifically, not just settlement facilitation.

Client Voice

The firm’s published testimonial page carries client accounts, including one describing a comparison against a prior attorney:

“After working with Lisa, I now believe my biggest regret regarding my divorce process is that I did not hire Duffee and Eitzen initially.” — Anonymous, client review, firm website

This is drawn from the firm’s own published testimonials; Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify the reviewer’s identity, a standard limitation across attorney-published testimonials, and the anonymity here is more complete than the named or initialed reviews seen at some competing firms.

Beyond the Courtroom

Eitzen’s bar and community service is extensive: past president of the Collin County Bar Association, director for Texas Lawyers for Children, chair of the Collaborative Law Alliance of Collin County, and a founding supporter of the SMU Van Sickle Family Law Clinic. She also supports the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program in honor of her father, Judge Merrill Hartman, who served as a Dallas District Judge for 22 years. Duffee separately supports Meals on Wheels, The Bridge, the North Texas Food Bank, and Attorneys Serving the Community, and is a former board member of the Dallas Bar Association’s Family Law Section.

Recognition

The strongest credential is Lewis’s TBLS board certification, tested and peer-evaluated, layered on top of her judicial record — a combination that’s genuinely uncommon in the Dallas family law bar. Eitzen and Duffee’s Super Lawyers selections (Eitzen: 2003–2006, 2009–2025) are peer-nomination-based, as is LawDragon’s 500 Leading Family Lawyers inclusion. By contrast, D Magazine’s “Best Lawyers in Dallas” placements and Modern Luxury’s “Power Players” and “Dynamic Women” recognitions are directory- and publication-driven rather than a tested certification — real visibility signals, but a different tier of credential than the board certification or a genuine judicial record.

Texas Legal Backdrop

The same structural rules apply to any Texas family law matter, presented as general information and not legal advice. 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 — directly relevant to Duffee’s complex business and real estate property division practice (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). Private judging in Texas operates under a specific statutory framework (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 151, the Special Judge statute) that allows parties to agree to a qualified special judge for their case, distinct from standard court assignment.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Duffee + Eitzen’s differentiator is a genuinely complementary partner mix: Duffee’s complex-property litigation background, Eitzen’s collaborative-law authorship and interdisciplinary approach, and Lewis’s nearly 25 years actually sitting on the family court bench. For a client whose case might benefit from a private judge, or who wants an attorney who has personally decided cases like theirs from the bench, that combination is difficult to find at a firm this size.

The honest trade-off is that the firm’s most distinctive credential — Lewis’s judicial background — belongs to one specific partner rather than the firm broadly; clients specifically drawn to that credential should confirm directly whether Lewis would handle their matter or serve as a private judge, versus another attorney on the team. As with any multi-partner boutique, prospective clients should also ask about current staffing and case assignment before retaining the firm.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys’ editorial team in August 2026. Primary sources: the firm’s own published website (duffeeandeitzen.com), including its attorney biography pages and testimonials, and the State Bar of Texas’s public attorney directory, which showed no public disciplinary history for Melinda Eitzen. Secondary sources: Super Lawyers, D Magazine, TAFLS (Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists), and HG.org’s attorney directory. 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.