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Tarleton Law Firm: A Marine Combat Veteran’s Second Career in Estate Planning

Before Allan Tarleton drafted his first will, he was an artillery officer leading Marines through a combat deployment to Iraq. He left the Corps as a Captain with a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, went to law school, and built a Dallas practice now entirely focused on estate planning and probate — a field he approaches, by his own account, with the same emphasis on making sure people actually understand the plan in front of them before they sign it. This profile is part of Awesome Attorneys’ coverage of Dallas estate planning attorney options.

At a Glance

Origin & Background

Allan Tarleton earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago before serving as an artillery officer and assistant operations officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, including a combat deployment to Iraq and non-combat deployments across East and Southeast Asia; he was honorably discharged as a Captain and awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal. He then earned his J.D. from SMU’s Dedman School of Law, was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 2009, and worked at established trust-and-estate firms in Houston and Dallas before founding his own practice. The State Bar of Texas’s public attorney record shows no misconduct findings.

Dallas Estate Planning Attorney Practice Concentration

The firm practices exclusively in estate planning and probate: wills, powers of attorney, sophisticated estate and gift tax planning, estate and gift tax return preparation, charitable planned giving, asset protection planning, business succession planning, and probate and trust administration for estates ranging from modest to high-net-worth. Tarleton is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — a credential requiring a six-hour specialty exam, 60 hours of approved continuing legal education, and peer references from judges and lawyers, on top of a minimum three years devoting at least 25% of practice time to the field.

Track Record

Estate planning and probate administration work does not generate the kind of verdict or settlement figures typical of litigation practices — the “results” in this field are completed estate plans, successful trust administrations, and estates settled without contested litigation. Tarleton Law Firm does not publish case-level figures, which is standard and expected for this practice area rather than a gap in disclosure.

Client Voice

The firm holds 27 reviews on Birdeye, with a consistently positive pattern across independent platforms. Representative examples:

“Allan Tarleton made preparing our wills easy and efficient. His personal demeanor, compassion, and knowledge provided us with comfort and a clear direction on how to accomplish our goals.” — client review, Birdeye

“Making necessary decisions in the event of your death is never a pleasant topic, but Mr. Tarleton walked us through each step with care and common sense. He explained complicated concepts in simple terms.” — client review, firm website

Awesome Attorneys did not find any negative reviews of Tarleton or his firm across Avvo, Martindale, FindLaw, or Birdeye during this research. Avvo and FindLaw show no reviews logged on those specific platforms, while Birdeye and Experience.com carry the bulk of the (uniformly positive) review volume — worth noting for readers who weight platform diversity, though the consistency of the record itself is a genuine positive signal.

Beyond the Courtroom

Tarleton is a member of the State Bar of Texas’s Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section and completed that section’s competitive Leadership Academy (2018–2019 class). He belongs to the Dallas Bar Association’s Probate, Trusts and Estates Section, the Dallas Estate Planning Council, and the Dallas Trusts & Estates Club, and serves as a Board Member for Jason’s Center of Hope and as a J.D. advisor for Service to School, a nonprofit that helps military veterans apply to college and graduate programs.

Recognition

Tarleton’s principal credential is his TBLS Board Certification in Estate Planning and Probate Law — a substantive, exam-and-peer-vetted specialty certification rather than a marketing award, and the basis on which this profile uses the term “specialist” in reference to his practice. Awesome Attorneys did not find third-party award listings (Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, D Magazine) for Tarleton at the time of this profile; his professional recognition to date rests on board certification, section leadership, and client review consistency rather than peer-nomination media lists.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas probate is governed primarily by the Texas Estates Code. A will generally must be admitted to probate within four years of the testator’s death under Estates Code § 256.003, after which an estate is typically treated as if the person died without a will (intestate) for most purposes, with limited exceptions. Texas allows both independent administration (the more common, lower-court-supervision path, available when a will authorizes it or all heirs agree) and dependent administration under Estates Code Chapter 401. For estates without a will, the state’s intestate succession rules under Estates Code Chapter 201 determine how property passes based on the decedent’s surviving family structure — a default outcome that comprehensive estate planning is generally designed to avoid or improve upon.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Tarleton Law Firm pairs a genuine, substantive credential — TBLS board certification in estate planning and probate, backed by prior experience at established trust-and-estate firms — with an unusually clean and consistent client review record across multiple independent platforms. The Marine Corps background is more than a marketing detail; the Leadership Academy participation and veteran-focused volunteer work (Service to School) suggest an attorney who has stayed engaged with structured, peer-reviewed professional development rather than resting on the initial certification.

The gap worth naming: this is a newer, smaller practice without the decades-long media-recognition trail (Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, D Magazine) that several other board-certified Dallas estate planning attorneys in this directory carry, and its review volume, while positive, is concentrated on a couple of aggregator platforms rather than spread evenly across Avvo, Google, and Martindale. Neither is disqualifying, but a client comparing purely on decades of press recognition will find deeper histories elsewhere in this category.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from the firm’s own website (tarletonfirm.com, including its Allan Tarleton attorney bio and Dallas office pages), Robert Allan Tarleton’s Avvo and Martindale attorney profiles (including bar-record and misconduct data), the firm’s Birdeye and Experience.com review pages, and the firm’s Better Business Bureau file. Statutory citations were checked against the Texas Estates Code. No case results, credentials, or quotes were invented; client testimonials are quoted from independently hosted review platforms (Birdeye) and the firm’s own site and identified accordingly.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

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