Farrow-Gillespie Heath Wilmoth LLP

Focus and practice areas

The firm works out of downtown Dallas and has run since 2007. Its work spans two broad tracks: transactional matters for organizations and personal legal needs for individuals. On the business side, the firm handles entity formation, governance, mergers and acquisitions, contracts, taxation, and trademarks. It also covers commercial real estate and lending.

Alongside that, the firm handles adoption, estate planning, probate, and employment law. Its clients include businesses, governmental entities, nonprofit organizations, and individuals. That mix lets the firm handle a company's formation papers and later step in on its disputes, and it lets the same office help a family with an adoption or an estate plan.

Litigation sits next to the transactional work. The firm's litigators take on personal injury defense, products liability, securities matters, and general commercial disputes. That defense-side injury work fits a client base built from businesses and institutions, and Henry Wehrmann's board certification in personal injury trial law anchors it. In my opinion, that pairing of courtroom work with everyday business counsel is what gives a mid-sized firm its range.

Origins and ownership

Julie Heath and Liza Farrow-Gillespie founded Farrow-Gillespie Heath Wilmoth LLP in 2007. The two started by sharing office space, and the partnership grew from there. Farrow-Gillespie had been permanent briefing attorney for United States District Judge Barefoot Sanders before she entered private practice. She died in July 2020, and the firm still carries her name.

Heath came to the firm from the commercial litigation section of a large firm, and she had run a solo practice in employment litigation. That background lines up with the employment and litigation work the firm does today. The firm describes itself as majority woman-owned.

Two certifications back that description: the firm is a certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) and a Historically Underutilized Business (HUB). It also holds an AV Preeminent rating. These credentials matter to corporate and public-sector clients who track supplier diversity when they pick outside counsel.

How the team is built

The attorneys page lists 22 lawyers across partners, of counsel, and associates. As a reviewer, I read a roster of that size as broad enough to cover several practice areas at once while small enough for partners to stay close to the work.

The fields the named attorneys cover give a sense of that breadth. Real estate, business and securities litigation, corporate and transactional work, probate and guardianship, bankruptcy, tax, trusts and estates, and health law all appear on the roster. That range tracks the practice areas listed on the firm's own pages.

Partners and their fields

Paula L. Beasley, an equity partner, handles real estate. Her work covers acquiring and financing property, commercial leasing, sales, lease negotiation, and landlord representation. She earned her J.D. from Southern Methodist University in 1991.

Mary L. O'Connor, also an equity partner, focuses on business litigation and securities litigation. Christopher Elam, another equity partner, works on corporate and transactional matters: corporate governance, intellectual property and trademark questions, non-compete and confidentiality agreements, real estate transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Jessica Dunne, an equity partner, keeps a practice in probate, guardianship, and trust litigation, with adoption work alongside it.

Dunne graduated cum laude from Baylor University School of Law in 2011. Courts in Dallas, Collin, and Kaufman Counties have appointed her attorney ad litem in heirship and guardianship proceedings, which places her probate work inside the courtroom.

Of counsel and associates

Scott Chase practices as of counsel and holds board certification in health law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Christian S. Kelso, also of counsel, works in tax law and trusts and estates, and he received his J.D. from Southern Methodist University in 2008.

The associate ranks include Madeleine Gerdes, Brooke Pryor, and Lydia Lopez. John Wilson practices tax law and probate, and he holds a J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law and an LL.M. in taxation from SMU Dedman School of Law. Breeann Rials handles commercial real estate; she earned her J.D. from Southwestern Law School in 2017 and a B.A. in political science from Hampton University in 2012.

Caylin C. Craig, a senior associate, concentrates on bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights, insolvency, and reorganization. That is a field many general business firms send out, so the firm can keep insolvency questions on its own roster when a client's deal or dispute turns that way. The roster mixes senior partners with associates and of counsel, the usual way a firm keeps rates varied across a single matter.

The shape of the business practice

Corporate work at a firm like this usually starts before a company has customers. A lawyer helps choose an entity type, drafts the governing documents, and sets the rules among owners. Christopher Elam's practice covers that ground, and it extends to non-compete and confidentiality agreements and to trademark questions.

Later stages bring different documents. A sale or a merger runs through diligence, a purchase agreement, and a closing, and it often touches trademark and real estate questions at the same time. Paula Beasley's real estate work and the firm's lending practice give a deal team the pieces to handle the property side of a transaction directly.

How the estate and family matters proceed

Two of the firm's fields touch families directly: adoption and guardianship, and estate planning and probate. Both move through the courts in a fairly set order.

Adoption and guardianship

Adoption in Texas runs through a state court and usually involves a petition, a home study, and a hearing before a judge signs the final order. Guardianship and heirship cases follow a related path, and courts often appoint an attorney ad litem to represent a person or an interest that cannot speak for itself. Jessica Dunne's ad litem appointments across three counties place the firm inside that court process.

Estate planning and probate

Estate planning covers the documents a person signs while living: wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and directives for medical care. Probate is the court step that follows a death, when the court proves a will and assets pass to heirs. The firm pairs both with tax counsel, which matters because estate and gift tax questions often shape how a plan is drafted. John Wilson's LL.M. in taxation and Christian Kelso's tax focus give that pairing a base inside the roster.

Certifications and credentials

Board certification from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization is a credential a lawyer earns through documented experience, a written examination, and peer review in one defined field. It gives a reader a checkable marker of depth in a named area. The firm counts two board-certified attorneys: Scott Chase in health law and Henry Wehrmann in personal injury trial law.