Biography
Judge Chrisman has successfully resolved many disputes involving family trust, estates, will contests, and family matters as a mediator and arbitrator. His experience in the legal profession is both extensive and varied with 13 years of experience as a judge in the family, probate, and district courts of Dallas County and 25 years as a practicing attorney with major law firms in the Dallas area.
He has served as a Judge in District Court, Probate Court, Domestic Relations Court, and Family District Court. He assisted in the revision of the Family Code and played a key role in its implementation in the Judicial System of the State of Texas. Judge Chrisman also participated in beginning the Master’s program in the Dallas Family Courts to hear temporary restraining order and conservatorship matters for the Courts. A founding member and chair of the Dallas Dispute Mediation Service, he served on committees to set up dispute resolution programs for the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Texas. Judge Chrisman also served as chair of the Legislature Oversight Committee for the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House of the State of Texas to revise the Mental Health Code of the State of Texas and help institute reforms in the family and probate courts to assist the courts in property and family law disputes.
Representative Matters
- Dispute between sisters in regard to mother’s health food store operation. Mother was non compos mentis and dispute over guardianship and management of valuable business and properties
- Division of community and separate property and sale of a family owned business. Case involved minor children; dispute over education and care of children, sale of real estate, and business interests of over $60 million.
- Division of community property interest in international cosmetic firm. Legal issues included valuation of closely held family corporation, multi-state real estate, and assets valued in excess of $100 million
- Family dispute involving removal of guardian, appointment of guardian, multiple trusts, two bank trust departments, and health care providers in a $100 million estate
- Mediation of delicate pre-marital agreement involving multiple tax and estate planning interests in multiple trusts
- Property dispute involving community and separate property interests in farm and ranch lands in Texas and out of state, which involved tracing and re-imbursement issues of over $20 million in assets.
Completed Virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute, the training arm of JAMS.
- Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation
- Member: Dallas Bar Association; Dallas Estate Council; Texas Bar Association (Chairman, Committee on Judicial Ethics, 1981); American Bar Association; Texas Association of Mediators; Dallas Association of Attorney-Mediators; Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR)
- Chair - Texas Institute of Health Research
- Former Chair: Dallas Baptist University Foundation (1986); Dallas County Juvenile Board (1978-1979); Legislative Oversight Committee for Mental Health
- Past Chair/Board of Trustees; Baylor University Medical Center; Baylor Health Care System; Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
- Party President/Board of Directors: Dispute Mediation Services of Dallas; Past President Mental Health Association of Texas; Dallas Council on Alcoholism; Committee on Judicial Conduct
- Past Treasurer, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas
- Author, “Released Time Programs,” Baylor Law Review and A Journal of Church and State
- Co-Author, Texas Probate System-Dependent Administration, published by the State Bar of Texas
- Judge, Sabine Valley Child Protection Courts, 2002
- Of Counsel, Fulbright & Jaworski, 1997-2001
- Partner, Vial, Hamilton, Koch & Knox, 1982-1997
- Judge, 44th Judicial District Court, 1978-1982
- Judge, 330th Family District Court, 1977-1978
- Judge, Domestic Relations Court No. 4, Dallas County, 1973-1977
- Judge, Probate Court No. 2, Dallas County, 1969-1973
- Partner, Green, Gilmore, Chrisman & Rothpleetz, 1968-1969
- Dallas Bar Association ADR Training Program
- State Bar of Texas ADR Program
- Harvard University School of Law Program of Instruction for Lawyers in Negotiation and Mediation
- J.D., Baylor University, 1959
- B.A., Baylor University, 1957
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- Estates/Probate/Trusts
- Family Law
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