Attorney Advertising. This is an independently researched editorial profile. Awesome Attorneys is not a lawyer referral service, does not accept payment for inclusion in this profile, and does not guarantee any legal outcome. See our Publisher Disclosure below.

The Ashmore Law Firm: A Former Special Probate Judge Now Building Estate Plans

Lori Ashmore Peters served as Special Probate Judge for Probate Court No. 3 in Dallas County — meaning she has literally sat on the bench deciding the kinds of disputes her estate planning clients hope never to face. She’s applied that vantage point to a practice built around a specific philosophy: design the plan to survive the fight, not just to look good on paper. This profile is part of Awesome Attorneys’ coverage of Dallas probate attorney options.

At a Glance

Origin & Background

Lori Ashmore Peters earned her J.D. from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in 1996 and joined The Ashmore Law Firm the same year, where she has practiced ever since. She is certified to serve as Attorney Ad Litem and Guardian Ad Litem in the Probate Courts of Texas and has been appointed to numerous probate and guardianship matters in that capacity. Her service as Special Probate Judge for Probate Court No. 3 in Dallas County, and as Master over Probable Cause Hearings, is a distinctive credential: she has direct judicial experience deciding the exact category of disputes — will contests, guardianship challenges, fiduciary conflicts — that her planning practice is designed to help clients avoid. She does not hold Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification in any specialty, a distinction this profile notes explicitly because several other Dallas estate planning attorneys in this directory do hold that credential.

Dallas Probate Attorney Practice Concentration

Peters concentrates on estate planning and probate: wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, asset-protection structures, multi-generational wealth planning, probate and estate administration for complex and high-value estates, and — reflecting her judicial background — probate litigation, will contests, fiduciary disputes, and contested guardianship matters. She also advises on business succession planning for closely held businesses. Her brother, Gary Ashmore, leads the firm’s family law practice; when a divorce involves trust assets or requires restructuring an estate plan before a final decree, the siblings work as co-counsel within the same firm — a structural advantage for clients whose situations span both practice areas simultaneously.

Track Record

As an estate planning and probate attorney, Peters does not publish individual case settlement or estate-value figures given the private nature of these matters. Her 14 consecutive years of Texas Super Lawyers recognition specifically in Estate Planning and Probate (2012–2026) is a sustained peer-nomination signal over more than a decade rather than a case-outcome metric. Past recognition does not guarantee future results.

Client Voice

Peters holds a 10.0 Avvo rating with 5-star reviews and a 5-star Lawyers.com rating in Estate Planning and Probate. Client testimonials on the firm’s site describe both estate planning and litigation outcomes:

“I want to thank you so much for your time and effort on my litigation case. Because of your hard work, I got the inheritance my grandmother wanted me to have.” — client testimonial, firm website

“The seminar was very helpful. She spoke in simplified legal terms. I have not ever thought about a Will.” — client testimonial, firm website

Awesome Attorneys did not identify negative reviews of Peters during this research.

Beyond the Courtroom

Peters is President of Friends of Reverchon Park, a Dallas Bar Foundation Fellow, a Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation Fellow, and a board member of the Maurine F. Bailey Cultural Foundation. She has co-authored continuing-legal-education materials, including a Dallas Bar Association Headnotes piece on estate planning for college-age and young-adult children, and regularly presents to audiences of CPAs, financial advisors, and other attorneys on probate, estate planning, and guardianship topics.

Recognition

Peters holds no Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification, so this profile does not describe her practice using the term “specialist.” Her credential set instead rests on sustained, multi-platform peer recognition: 14 consecutive years of Texas Super Lawyers selection specifically in Estate Planning and Probate, Best Lawyers in America recognition (2025–2026), a multi-year AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell rating, and a 10.0 Avvo rating — a genuinely deep peer-and-client-review record even without formal board certification.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Will contests in Texas generally must be filed within two years of a will’s admission to probate under Texas Estates Code § 256.204, with narrow exceptions for fraud or forgery — an area of Peters’s direct litigation experience. Guardianship proceedings, another practice focus, require clear and convincing evidence of incapacity under Texas Estates Code Title 3 before a court will appoint a guardian over an adult’s person or estate — the same standard Peters applied from the bench during her service as Special Probate Judge. For the firm’s cross-disciplinary divorce-and-estate cases, characterizing trust or business assets as separate versus community property under Texas Family Code Chapter 3 often requires the kind of coordinated planning-and-litigation expertise the firm’s sibling co-counsel structure is built around.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Lori Ashmore Peters’s judicial background — actual service as a Special Probate Judge — is a genuinely distinctive credential among Dallas estate planning attorneys: she has ruled on the kinds of probate and guardianship disputes her planning clients are trying to avoid, which gives her a first-hand, courtroom-tested view of where estate plans typically fail. Combined with 14 unbroken years of Super Lawyers recognition and a 10.0 Avvo rating, this is a strong, well-documented practice.

The gap worth naming directly: Peters does not hold TBLS board certification, the formal state credential several competing Dallas estate planning attorneys in this directory carry. Her peer-review and judicial-service credentials are a real, substantial alternative body of evidence, but a client specifically prioritizing formal board certification should know it is not present here.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (ashmorelaw.com, including Lori Ashmore Peters’s detailed attorney bio page), her Martindale-Hubbell, Lawyers.com, Avvo, Super Lawyers, and Justia attorney profiles, and FindLaw’s directory listing. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Estates Code and Texas Family Code. No case results, credentials, or quotes were invented; client testimonials are attributed to the firm’s own published materials.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by The Ashmore Law Firm, P.C. 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 The Ashmore Law Firm or Awesome Attorneys.