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Kessler Collins: Nearly 50 Years Old, Still Small Enough to Know Every Client’s Business

Founded in 1977, this Dallas business litigation attorney firm has outlasted nearly five decades of Dallas legal-market churn while staying deliberately small — a scale choice its chairman explicitly frames as a “credible alternative to Big Law” rather than a limitation.

At a Glance: Dallas Business Litigation Attorney Firm Overview

Origin & Background

Kessler Collins was founded in 1977 and has operated as a full-service business litigation boutique for nearly 50 years, with offices in Dallas, Austin, and Houston. Chairman Gary S. Kessler has been individually recognized by Best Lawyers in America continuously since 1995 — three decades of sustained peer recognition. Most of the firm’s attorneys have practiced for more than 25 years each, according to the firm’s own Chambers profile, reflecting a deliberately senior-heavy staffing model rather than a junior-associate-driven practice.

Practice Concentration: What This Dallas Business Litigation Attorney Firm Handles

The firm’s stated practice, per its own site, spans commercial litigation, securities litigation and regulatory matters (SEC, FINRA, and state regulators), insurance coverage and defense, intellectual property, professional liability, construction defects, bankruptcy creditors’ rights, and even a niche art law practice. Chambers USA specifically notes the firm’s substantial experience representing international clients, often in the insurance industry.

Mixed-representation disclosure: Kessler Collins represents both plaintiffs and defendants. Shareholder Charmaine Voorhees Becken’s own bio, describing her practice at the firm, states she “represents both plaintiffs and defendants in business and commercial disputes involving banking, employment and other business litigation issues.” Prospective clients should understand this firm may be retained by either side of a commercial dispute depending on the matter.

Notable Work

The firm does not publish a structured, itemized verdicts-and-settlements table with individual case figures on its current site. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case, and this gap in published results is disclosed directly rather than papered over.

Client Voice

The firm’s public consumer review presence is thin — a single Yelp review states, “I can’t speak highly enough of this Kessler Collins. My experience with this firm is top notch,” specifically regarding intellectual property work for a new corporation, but the firm’s Facebook page shows no ratings posted. This limited review volume is consistent with a boutique whose clients are predominantly businesses rather than individual consumers, and is disclosed directly as a gap.

Beyond the Courtroom

Kessler Collins was recognized in Chambers’ inaugural Regional Spotlight guide in 2022, an honor the firm’s own leadership specifically framed as validation of offering “a credible alternative to Big Law” — language that reflects the firm’s stated positioning rather than an outside characterization.

Recognition

Gary S. Kessler has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America since 1995 in Commercial Litigation, Insurance Law, Litigation-Real Estate, and Litigation-Securities. The firm is ranked by Chambers USA’s Regional Spotlight in Litigation: General Commercial. Shareholder Charmaine Voorhees Becken has been named to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch (2021–2023) and Texas Rising Stars (2020–2023). No attorney at the firm is presented as a Texas Board of Legal Specialization “specialist” in this profile, because that documentation was not located in the firm’s public materials; the recognitions above are peer-review and publication-based rather than state board certification.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Commercial disputes of the size this firm typically handles are frequently eligible for Texas’s Business Court system, created by House Bill 19 and codified at Texas Government Code Chapter 25A, which began accepting cases on September 1, 2024 with the Dallas-area First Division among the first five to open. The court’s civil jurisdiction generally covers disputes involving at least $5 million, including securities-related claims — directly relevant to this firm’s stated securities litigation practice. This is general background information, not legal advice, and does not account for the specific facts of any dispute.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Nearly 50 years of continuous operation, a chairman with three decades of unbroken Best Lawyers recognition, and a deliberately senior-staffed team reflect genuine institutional stability in a market where boutiques often don’t outlast their founders. Chambers’ specific praise for the firm’s international insurance-industry client work adds a documented specialization beyond general commercial litigation.

The honest gap: the firm’s public consumer review presence is minimal — a single Yelp review and no ratings on its Facebook page — which is a real limitation for anyone trying to independently verify client experience beyond the firm’s peer-review credentials. As with several elite Dallas commercial litigation boutiques in this directory, the available record here leans heavily on institutional recognition (Chambers, Best Lawyers) rather than a broad base of consumer feedback, and that’s worth asking about directly in an initial consultation.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (kesslercollins.com), Chambers USA’s Spotlight Profile, Best Lawyers’ attorney and firm directory listings, LinkedIn firm updates, Facebook’s business page, and Yelp’s business listing.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independently researched legal directory. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Kessler Collins, P.C. prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to firms profiled on this site, but sponsorship status has no bearing on editorial content, and inclusion in this directory is not an endorsement of any firm for any particular legal matter. Nothing in this profile constitutes legal advice or a lawyer referral; readers with a legal question should consult a licensed Texas attorney directly.