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ONDA Family Law: Founded by the Attorney Who Wrote the Book on Texas Appeals

Richard Orsinger has practiced family law for 50 years, holds dual Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification in both Family Law and Civil Appellate Law, and literally wrote a 900-page treatise on Texas civil appellate procedure. He co-founded Orsinger, Nelson, Downing & Anderson on the premise that family law and appellate law are inseparable — that a divorce case handled without appellate-level rigor from day one is a case built on a weaker foundation. This profile is part of Awesome Attorneys’ coverage of Dallas family law attorney options.

At a Glance

Origin & Background

Richard Orsinger marked 50 years in legal practice in 2025 and was inducted into the State Bar of Texas Family Law Hall of Legends in 2021 — an honor reserved for attorneys with a minimum of 40 years in practice who have had a significant impact on Texas family law. He holds dual TBLS board certification in Family Law and Civil Appellate Law, a genuinely uncommon combination, and authored an authoritative 900-page treatise on Texas civil appellate procedure along with more than 275 continuing-legal-education presentations. He founded the Texas Family Law Foundation and has twice won the Franklin Jones Best Continuing Legal Education Article Award from the College of the State Bar of Texas. Every partner at ONDA — Orsinger, Keith Nelson, Scott Downing, and Jeffrey Anderson — is individually TBLS Board Certified in Family Law, and each is a member of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists.

Dallas Family Law Attorney Practice Concentration

ONDA practices exclusively in family law: divorce, child custody, property division, marital agreements, enforcement, mediation, arbitration, collaborative law, and — distinctively — a dedicated appellate practice specifically for family law cases. That appellate specialization is the firm’s clearest point of differentiation: most family law firms refer appeals to outside appellate counsel, while ONDA has built its identity around handling both trial and appeal in-house for complex, high-conflict, and high-net-worth divorces.

Track Record

As a family law firm, ONDA does not publish individual case settlement or verdict figures given the private nature of divorce proceedings. These recognitions are peer-nomination and publication-based rather than case-outcome-based; past recognition does not guarantee future results.

Client Voice

ONDA’s public materials are dense with institutional and peer recognition but this profile did not locate a substantial independent consumer-review presence (Avvo, Google, Yelp aggregate ratings) for the firm during this research — a pattern this directory has now seen with several large, established Dallas family law institutions, and one this profile discloses rather than omits. A firm of ONDA’s size and visibility in the Texas family law bar would typically be expected to carry a larger public consumer-review footprint; its relative absence here means prospective clients should ask directly for references rather than relying on aggregated star ratings.

Beyond the Courtroom

Orsinger chairs and serves on multiple Texas Supreme Court advisory committees, including the Advisory Committee on Rules of Procedure, Rules of Appellate Procedure, and Rules of Evidence — meaning he has had a direct hand in shaping the procedural rules Texas courts operate under, not just practicing within them. He was chief editor of the State Bar of Texas’s Texas Supreme Court Practice Manual and a two-volume work on expert witnesses in family law litigation, and received the Dan Rugeley Price Memorial Award from the Texas Bar Foundation and the Sam Emison Award from the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists.

Recognition

Orsinger’s dual Board Certification (Family Law and Civil Appellate Law) is a genuinely rare combination and the credential this profile treats as most substantive; the firm-wide requirement that every partner hold TBLS Family Law certification is itself an unusually strict internal standard. The Family Law Hall of Legends induction is a career-capstone peer honor from the State Bar of Texas itself, distinct from commercial publication rankings. Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and U.S. News rankings are legitimate, sustained peer-nomination recognitions but operate on a different, less formally rigorous standard than board certification or Hall of Legends induction.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas is a community property state under Texas Family Code § 3.002, and a divorce cannot be finalized until at least 60 days after filing under Family Code § 6.702, absent family violence. Appeals of family law trial court rulings — ONDA’s specific area of additional depth — proceed under the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, and generally must be initiated within 30 days of a final judgment (or 90 days if a timely post-judgment motion is filed), a strict deadline where missing the window forfeits appellate review regardless of the underlying merits. Child custody follows the conservatorship framework in Family Code Chapter 153, which presumes joint managing conservatorship serves a child’s best interest absent evidence of family violence or similar disqualifying conduct.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

ONDA’s institutional depth is genuinely exceptional: a name partner with a Family Law Hall of Legends induction and dual board certification, an entire partnership required to hold TBLS Family Law certification, and 14 consecutive years on U.S. News’s Best Law Firms list with a specifically-ranked national appellate practice. For a family law matter where an appeal is a realistic possibility — a complex property characterization dispute, a contested custody ruling, a significant marital-estate valuation fight — having trial and appellate strategy unified under one roof from the outset is a genuine structural advantage most family law firms cannot offer.

The gap worth naming plainly: this profile could not locate the kind of independent, aggregated consumer review record (Avvo, Google star ratings) that grounds many other profiles in this directory. For an institution this well-documented through peer and institutional channels, that’s a different kind of evidence gap than a red flag — but it means a prospective client evaluating ONDA is relying more on credentials and professional reputation than on crowd-sourced client experience, and should ask for direct references accordingly.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (ondafamilylaw.com, including its attorney bios, News & Blog, and firm-recognition press releases), Richard Orsinger’s individual attorney bio page, Best Lawyers’ and Best Law Firms’ firm profiles, and multiple wire-service press releases (BusinessWire, Morningstar) covering Orsinger’s 50-year practice milestone and Hall of Legends induction. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Family Code and Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. No case results, credentials, or quotes were invented; all recognitions and honors are attributed to their original source.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Orsinger, Nelson, Downing & Anderson, LLP prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placements clearly labeled as such, but no payment of any kind determines inclusion in, or the content of, this editorial profile. This article is for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader and ONDA Family Law or Awesome Attorneys.