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Staubus, Blankenship, Legere and Walker: Forty Years Fighting Only Contested Estates

P. Keith Staubus has spent four decades on a single, narrow slice of the law: will contests, trust litigation, and guardianship disputes — the fights that happen when an estate plan meets a family that doesn’t agree with it. His firm doesn’t draft routine wills for the general public; it exists for the moment those wills, or the fiduciaries administering them, get challenged in court. This profile is part of Awesome Attorneys’ coverage of Dallas probate attorney options.

At a Glance

Origin & Background

P. Keith Staubus has dedicated his practice for 40 years to will contests, trust litigation, guardianship disputes, and fiduciary litigation in Texas Probate and District Courts. He has served as Chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s Probate, Trust and Estate Section, spoken at continuing legal education seminars across Texas on estate litigation and guardianship topics, served on a committee revising the Dallas Bar Association’s Probate Section Forms Manual, and has testified as an expert witness in estate and trust cases on behalf of other lawyers. He holds a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent peer-review rating. Julie Blankenship joins him as a co-named partner also individually recognized by Best Lawyers in America. The firm, founded in 2002, has grown to five named attorneys with a combined 100-plus years of legal experience.

Dallas Probate Attorney Practice Concentration

The firm concentrates exclusively on estate, trust, and guardianship litigation: will contests, undue influence and lack-of-capacity claims, suing and defending trustees and executors, guardianship disputes, trust terminations and modifications, common law marriage claims affecting inheritance, beneficiary designation litigation, family partnership and LLC disputes tied to estates, and power of attorney disputes. The firm also handles non-contested estate administration and estate planning work, but its institutional identity and specific expertise center on contested matters — the cases that arise when family members disagree about a will, a trustee’s conduct, or a loved one’s capacity.

Track Record

The firm is ranked Best Lawyers Tier One for Trust and Estate Litigation in the Dallas/Fort Worth market specifically — a peer-reviewed publication ranking rather than a self-reported case-results table. Client testimonials reference specific outcomes (a jury trial preserving a client’s business, a summary judgment obtained without a full jury trial in a contested estate dispute) without independently verifiable docket citations. Awesome Attorneys could not independently confirm these specific case outcomes and presents them as the firm’s published claims.

Client Voice

The firm carries a 4.9-out-of-5.0 rating across 15 reviews on a Chamber of Commerce business directory, with no negative reviews identified during this research:

“Keith Staubus and Julie Blankenship and their team represented me in a jury trial in the probate court where the ownership of the business which I had worked hard to build was at stake. They successfully fought to preserve my business and my professional reputation.” — client testimonial, firm website

“After my husband’s death, I was devastated by having to defend against a vicious dispute over my husband’s estate. Julie Blankenship and Keith Staubus made me feel very comfortable in this distressing situation… obtaining a summary judgment in my favor without a full jury trial.” — client testimonial, firm website

These accounts are consistent with the firm’s stated specialty in exactly this kind of high-conflict, business-and-inheritance-entangled dispute.

Beyond the Courtroom

Staubus’s role chairing the Dallas Bar Association’s Probate, Trust and Estate Section and his committee work revising the Section’s official Probate Forms Manual reflect direct involvement in shaping local probate practice standards, not just working within them. His work as an expert witness in other lawyers’ estate and trust cases is itself a form of peer validation — other attorneys retaining him specifically for his subject-matter authority.

Recognition

The firm’s strongest institutional credential is its Best Lawyers Tier One ranking specifically for Trust and Estate Litigation in Dallas/Fort Worth — a category-specific, peer-and-client-survey-based ranking distinct from a general firm listing. Staubus’s and Blankenship’s individual Best Lawyers in America recognitions and Staubus’s AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell rating are consistent, multi-source peer validation. Awesome Attorneys did not confirm individual TBLS board certification for the named partners during this research; the firm’s credibility here rests primarily on sustained peer-review recognition (Best Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell) and documented bar leadership roles rather than formal board certification, which this profile notes explicitly since several other Dallas estate planning attorneys in this directory do hold that 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 — directly relevant to the firm’s core will-contest practice. Claims of undue influence or lack of testamentary capacity, another firm specialty, require proving the testator lacked the mental capacity to understand the nature of their property and family relationships, or that a dominant party improperly substituted their will for the testator’s own. Guardianship proceedings, also a firm focus, require clear and convincing evidence of incapacity under Texas Estates Code Title 3 before a court will appoint a guardian, and breach of fiduciary duty claims against trustees draw on Texas Property Code Chapter 114.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Staubus, Blankenship, Legere and Walker’s genuine strength is deep, narrow specialization in contested estate and trust matters specifically — a distinct skill set from routine will-drafting estate planning, and one the firm has built explicit institutional recognition around (a category-specific Best Lawyers Tier One ranking, not a general firm listing). Forty years of concentrated litigation experience, direct bar leadership in the exact practice area, and consistently positive client reviews from people describing exactly the kind of high-conflict estate disputes the firm specializes in all support a credible, specialized practice.

The gap worth naming plainly: this profile did not confirm individual TBLS board certification for the named partners, which several competing Dallas estate planning and probate attorneys in this directory do hold. The firm’s credibility instead rests on sustained peer-review recognition and demonstrated bar leadership — a real but differently structured credential set than board certification, and one prospective clients should weigh accordingly.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (dallasprobateandtrust.com, including its Will Probate, Estate Administration, and Estate Litigation pages with client testimonials), P. Keith Staubus’s Super Lawyers and Lawyers.com attorney profiles, and a Chamber of Commerce business directory aggregating client reviews. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Estates Code and Texas Property Code. No case results, credentials, or quotes were invented; client testimonials are attributed to the firm’s own published materials and identified as claims where independent court-record verification was not performed.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Staubus, Blankenship, Legere and Walker 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 Staubus, Blankenship, Legere and Walker or Awesome Attorneys.