Gordon Davis Johnson Shane & Snider P.C.

How the firm began and grew

The firm opened in 1994, when five El Paso attorneys left larger firms to start a business-focused office. At the start it carried the name Krafsur Gordon Mott Sanders & Miranda, PC. Andrew B. Krafsur, H. Christopher Mott, and Carlos A. Miranda III began in March of that year. Patrick R. Gordon and Gary D. Sanders joined that April.

Growth came in steps the firm records openly. Darren G. Woody and Harrel L. Davis III joined in 1997, and Davis took up bankruptcy and litigation work. By 1998 the office had moved to its Mesa Street location in West El Paso. The name changed to Gordon Davis Johnson & Shane P.C. in August 2010.

The most recent change came in January 2026. That month Joshua W. Snider became a named shareholder, and the firm took the name Gordon Davis Johnson Shane & Snider P.C. Across three decades the firm has kept one El Paso base and a business focus while its name and roster changed.

Focus and practice areas

The firm centers its work on business transactions and business-related litigation. It describes itself as a boutique office built around commercial matters. Beyond that core, the site lists real estate, tax, bankruptcy, estate planning and probate, immigration, healthcare, government law and land use, mediation, family law, and cross-border transactions.

That spread covers work a company often meets over its life. As a reviewer, I read it as a set built for commercial clients who want more than one kind of help under a single roof.

Business and corporate work

Corporate matters usually run through entity formation, contracts, financing, and the sale or purchase of a company. Litigation tied to those deals tends to involve disputes over agreements, ownership, or payment. The firm names both sides of that work, the transactions and the litigation that can follow. In practice that means one team can handle a deal and any dispute that grows out of it.

Tax, bankruptcy, and estate matters

Some attorneys hold CPA credentials, which fits the tax and bankruptcy work the firm lists. Bankruptcy cases move through federal court on a set schedule of filings and hearings. Estate planning and probate cover wills, trusts, and the court process that settles an estate after a death. These areas often reach the same business clients, since an owner's company and personal affairs tend to overlap.

Real estate, immigration, and other services

Real estate work usually covers purchase and sale agreements, leases, financing, and title questions, and the broker credentials some attorneys hold sit close to that. Immigration matters can involve visas, work authorization, and status questions, which in a border city often tie back to business needs such as hiring or investment. The firm also lists healthcare law, government law and land use, and mediation. Healthcare law tends to cover licensing, regulatory compliance, and the business arrangements among providers. Mediation gives parties a route to settle a dispute with a neutral third party before or during a trial.

How the team is built

The attorney page lists sixteen names. Five of them carry through to the current firm name: Patrick R. Gordon, Harrel L. Davis III, Timothy D. Johnson, Michael J. Shane, and Joshua W. Snider. Snider is the newest of them, elected a named shareholder in January 2026.

Other attorneys the site names include Morgan Broaddus, Robert V. Gibson, Michael G. McLean, John M. Dickey, Joshua F. Rhoads, Carla Canales, and Cynthia Canales. Harrel L. Davis III, who joined in 1997, took up bankruptcy and litigation. Michael J. Shane is the point of contact for legal questions on the firm's contact page.

Cross-border and multi-state reach

El Paso sits near the Texas and New Mexico state line and the United States and Mexico border. The firm points to that position when it describes handling interstate and cross-border matters. Many of its attorneys hold licenses in New Mexico and Colorado on top of Texas, which lets the firm act for clients in more than one state.

Cross-border commercial work carries its own steps. Deals that touch both sides of the border can involve two sets of rules, currency and tax questions, and documents in more than one language. A firm with bilingual attorneys and licenses in neighboring states can keep more of that work in-house. The multi-state licensing supports the firm's cross-border work, since the same lawyers can follow a matter across the Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado lines.

Language access is part of the picture too. Many of the attorneys are bilingual in English and Spanish, a practical fit for a border city and for clients doing business across the line. Some also hold real estate broker credentials, which lines up with the property work the firm lists.

What the record shows

The firm states that it has represented over 10,000 clients since 1994. That figure, read alongside a three-decade run and a steady El Paso base, points to consistent volume over time. The continuity shows in the name itself: founders whose surnames still sit in the title, and a business focus held across two renamings.

In my opinion the firm's own history carries the weight here. It began in 1994, grew to about seventeen attorneys, moved once within West El Paso, and took its current name in January 2026 when Joshua W. Snider joined the masthead.