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Norris & Weber: The Dallas Probate Firm That Helped Design the Courts’ Own Paperwork

Norris & Weber, PLLC traces its lineage to 1926, when two future Dallas Bar Association presidents founded what would eventually become one of Dallas’s oldest continuously operating law firms — one of them later became mayor of Dallas and has a downtown freeway named after him. The firm’s specific probate expertise dates to 1960, and in the 1970s a firm attorney serving as a Special Judge for the Dallas Probate Courts helped develop accounting and administrative forms still in use in those courts today. This profile is part of Awesome Attorneys’ coverage of Dallas probate attorney options.

At a Glance

Origin & Background

The firm now known as Norris & Weber was founded in 1926 by Charles D. Turner and J. Woodall Rodgers — the latter a future Dallas mayor for whom the Woodall Rodgers Freeway is named — and has counted two Texas Attorneys General (Grover Sellers and Will Wilson) among its historical members. R.W. Calloway joined in 1960 to build the firm’s probate, estate, and tax practice; he later served as a Special Judge for the Dallas Probate Courts and, alongside John Norris, helped develop administrative and accounting forms still used by Dallas County’s three probate courts. John R. Norris III has led the probate practice for decades, earning the Dallas Bar Association Probate, Trust & Estates Law Section’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 for more than 40 years of contribution to the field. Scott D. Weber earned his J.D. from SMU’s Dedman School of Law in 1989, was admitted to the State Bar of Texas the same year, and has chaired the Dallas Bar Association’s Probate, Trusts and Estate Section (2016–2017).

Dallas Probate Attorney Practice Concentration

Norris & Weber practices exclusively in probate and trust litigation: will contests, trust litigation, guardianship disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, estate administration, and community property disputes arising in probate. This is a genuinely litigation-focused probate practice rather than a transactional estate-planning practice that occasionally litigates — worth distinguishing for readers who specifically need a will contested (or defended) rather than one drafted.

Track Record

As a litigation-focused probate firm, Norris & Weber’s public materials emphasize peer and publication recognition over individual case verdicts, likely reflecting the confidential nature of many contested probate and guardianship matters. Awesome Attorneys did not locate published case-level results and is not able to independently verify litigation outcomes; past recognition does not guarantee future results.

Client Voice

Awesome Attorneys searched Yelp, FindLaw, and Avvo for independently posted client reviews of Norris & Weber and its named attorneys. None of these platforms showed a meaningful volume of reviews at the time of this research — a genuine gap this profile is disclosing rather than omitting. Firms whose practice centers on contested, often confidential probate and guardianship litigation may generate fewer public reviews than transactional estate-planning practices, but prospective clients should know this firm’s public review record could not be independently assessed for this profile.

Beyond the Courtroom

Norris is a member of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), an invitation-only fellowship of trust and estate attorneys recognized for professional reputation and scholarly contribution to the field — a genuinely selective peer credential distinct from marketing-list recognitions. He is certified by the State Bar of Texas to serve as an Ad Litem in guardianship proceedings under Probate Code § 646, and received the Senior Source’s Molly H. Bogen Service Award in 2018 for work benefiting older Dallas residents. Weber has served in a full progression of leadership roles within the Dallas Bar Association’s Probate, Trusts and Estate Section, from Program Chair (2013–2014) through Chair (2016–2017).

Recognition

John Norris’s Board Certification in Probate Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization is the substantive, exam-and-peer-vetted credential this profile treats as most significant, alongside his ACTEC fellowship. Scott Weber’s TBLS certification is in Civil Trial Law rather than probate specifically — a real and rigorous credential, but this profile does not describe Weber individually as a probate “specialist” on that basis, reserving that term for Norris’s directly on-point certification. The firm’s Best Lawyers and Texas Super Lawyers recognitions are legitimate, long-running peer-nomination honors (Norris has been listed by Best Lawyers for 28 consecutive years) but are a different, less formally vetted category than 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. Breach of fiduciary duty claims against an executor or trustee — a core part of this firm’s litigation practice — draw on Texas Estates Code Chapter 351 (executor duties) and Texas Property Code Chapter 114 (trustee liability) depending on whether the dispute involves an estate or a trust. Guardianship proceedings, another firm focus, are governed by Texas Estates Code Title 3, which requires clear and convincing evidence of incapacity before a court will appoint a guardian over an adult’s person or estate — a deliberately high bar given the rights at stake.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Norris & Weber’s institutional history is genuinely unusual: a firm operating continuously since 1926, with a probate practice built since 1960 by attorneys who literally helped design the Dallas Probate Courts’ administrative processes, led today by an ACTEC fellow with a TBLS Probate Law certification and 28 years on Best Lawyers. For a will contest, guardianship dispute, or fiduciary breach claim specifically — as opposed to routine estate planning — this is a deeply credentialed option.

The honest limitation is public transparency at the consumer level: this profile could not locate a meaningful independent client review record on Yelp, FindLaw, or Avvo, which is a real gap in the kind of everyday consumer signal this directory typically surfaces. That is common for litigation boutiques handling confidential, high-conflict family disputes, but it means a prospective client is relying more heavily on institutional and peer credentials here than on crowd-sourced client feedback.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (dallasprobatelawfirm.com, including its About Us, Our Attorneys, John R. Norris III, and Scott D. Weber pages), BCG Attorney Search’s firm history summary, Scott Weber’s Avvo attorney profile, and FindLaw’s firm directory listing. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Estates Code and Texas Property Code. No case results, credentials, honors, or historical claims were invented; the firm’s 1926 founding date and historical attorney roster are as stated on the firm’s own published history.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Norris & Weber, PLLC 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 Norris & Weber or Awesome Attorneys.