Lone Star Counsel Texas ranch estate at golden hour
Our Approach
Attorney · CPA · Business Advisor

A counsel
measured in decades.

Philosophy

Quiet rooms.
Quieter outcomes.

Lone Star Counsel is a private boutique Texas law firm in the European tradition — one senior attorney handling every matter personally, a deliberate roster of clients, and a preference for the slow, exact, and durable.

We don't market our matters. We don't chase trophies. We are retained, year after year, by families whose names are familiar to Texans and by business owners whose enterprises rarely appear in print.

Four Principles

How we keep our promises.

I

Patience

The best legal work compounds. We rarely give the urgent answer; we always give the lasting one.

II

Discretion

Most of our matters are never reported, never publicized, and never need to be. That is the work.

III

Craft

We draft documents as a cabinetmaker joins wood — measured, tested, fit to last beyond the maker.

IV

Continuity

Your counsel does not rotate. The lawyer who drafts your shareholder agreement will counsel your heirs.

The Founder

One counsel,
two licenses, two states.

Darryl V. Pratt
Plate 1 · Managing Partner
Managing Partner

Darryl V. Pratt, Esq., CPA

Business · Trusts & Estate Planning · Probate · Bankruptcy

For nearly 30 years, Darryl V. Pratt has served as a trusted legal and business advisor to entrepreneurs, closely held business owners, professional practices, physicians and healthcare professionals, executives, investors, high-net-worth individuals, and families throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and other states.

His practice focuses on business planning and transactions, business succession planning, asset protection planning, trust and estate planning, probate and trust administration, elder law, guardianship, wealth preservation strategies, and Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring.

Mr. Pratt regularly advises clients on business formation, corporate governance, buy-sell agreements, ownership transitions, mergers and acquisitions, trust structures, fiduciary matters, and long-term family and business succession strategies.

Leveraging nearly 30 years of experience as both an Attorney and Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he provides sophisticated counsel that integrates legal, tax, financial, and strategic considerations to help clients protect their businesses, preserve their assets, and build enduring legacies for future generations.

Education
  • B.B.A., The University of Oklahoma · 1994
  • J.D., OCU School of Law · 1997
  • C.P.A., Oklahoma & Texas · 1997
Bar Admissions
  • Texas · 1997
  • Oklahoma · 2015
  • U.S. Tax Court · 2001
  • U.S. District Court — Northern & Eastern Districts of Texas · 2001
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court — Northern & Eastern Districts of Texas · 2001
CPA Licensure
  • Oklahoma · 1997
  • Texas · 1997
Of Counsel

Engaged on request.

The firm maintains standing relationships with a curated roster of Of Counsel attorneys — each a seasoned specialist in matters requiring particular depth, from complex Chapter 11 litigation and cross-border transactions to niche tax controversies and out-of-state probate.

These affiliates are engaged discreetly and only when a matter benefits from their singular expertise. Names, jurisdictions, and credentials are furnished to prospective clients on request.

Values

Three principles
governing every engagement.

I

Two Disciplines, One Desk

Legal and tax counsel from a single credentialed attorney — Esq. and CPA — so strategy is integrated, not stitched together after the fact.

II

The Long Retainer

Most of our clients have been with the firm for over a decade. That is the standard we build toward from the first conference: counsel measured in decades, not matters.

III

Quiet Sophistication

We do not advertise our matters. Our work is known by referral, by outcome, and by the endurance of the structures we draft.

Inside the Firm

A quiet place
to think clearly.

01 / 06

The library — Texas Reports, Southwestern, and the weight of precedent.

A Note from the Founder

Why I built this firm.

In my own words.

Darryl V. Pratt at his Frisco office
Plate 2 · At the Frisco Office

I spent the first decade of my career inside the country's largest accounting and law firms — KPMG, Arthur Andersen, and later a Dallas partnership with a book of substantial closely-held businesses. I learned how big-firm sophistication is built, and I also learned what it costs a client: rotating associates, matters passed hand-to-hand, and advice shaped as much by billable hour targets as by the client's actual situation.

I opened this firm because Texas families and business owners deserve the same technical rigor without those trade-offs. One senior counsel. Every matter, personally. Counsel that continues into the next generation, without a new introduction each time.

Being dually licensed as both a Texas attorney and a CPA is unusual — and it matters. Most tax matters are legal matters. Most legal matters have tax and financial consequences. When those disciplines are handled by one desk, the strategy is tighter, the drafting is cleaner, and the client is never caught between two advisors pointing at each other.

This is a practice built on patience and trust. If that resonates with how you make decisions, I would welcome the conversation.

Darryl V. Pratt, Esq., CPA
Managing Partner · Pratt Law Group, PLLC d/b/a Lone Star Counsel
Full Attorney Bio →
Professional Memberships

Bar sections.
CPA societies. Boards.

Active membership in the bar sections, CPA societies, and professional associations that keep the practice current, credentialed, and engaged with the profession.

State Bar of Texas
  • Business Law Section
  • Bankruptcy Law Section
  • General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Section
  • Real Estate, Probate & Trust Law Section
Oklahoma Bar Association
  • Business & Corporate Law Section
  • Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Section
  • Taxation Section
American Institute of CPAs (AICPA)
  • Personal Financial Planning Division
  • Tax Section
State CPA Societies
  • Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants
  • Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants
American Bar Association
  • Business Law Section
  • Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section
Community & Board
  • Frisco Chamber of Commerce · Member
  • Board and advisory positions furnished on request
Professional Accomplishments

Peer-reviewed.
Independently recognized.

A selection of the third-party recognitions, peer-reviewed ratings, and accredited-attorney credentials held by the firm.

  • AV Preeminent — Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating
    AV Preeminent® · Martindale-Hubbell
  • Rated by Super Lawyers
    Rated by Super Lawyers
  • Best Lawyers
    Best Lawyers®
  • Best Lawyers in America — 2022 recognition
    Best Lawyers in America · 2022
  • Best Law Firms — U.S. News
    Best Law Firms · U.S. News
  • Fellow of the Texas Bar College — a professional society of legal scholars
    Fellow · Texas Bar College
  • NAELA — National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
    NAELA · Elder Law Attorneys
  • Member — American Academy of Attorney-CPAs
    Member · American Academy of Attorney-CPAs
  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — Accredited Attorney
    VA Accredited Attorney

Badges are the trademarks of their respective organizations and are displayed to identify the firm's third-party recognitions and accreditations. No aspect of these advertisements has been approved by the Supreme Court of Texas. The firm's full recognition methodology and third-party disclosure notices remain a forthcoming content item.

Speaking & Published Work

Contributions to
the profession.

Speaking & CLE
  • Buy-Sell Agreements in Closely Held Texas Businesses — annual CLE presentation, Dallas-Fort Worth chapter
  • Chapter 11 Reorganization for the Middle-Market Enterprise — CLE panel, Texas Bar
  • The Attorney-CPA Advantage: Integrating Tax and Legal Counsel — private-client roundtable, Frisco
  • Dynasty Trust Planning Under the New Federal Estate-Tax Exemption — invited lecture, wealth advisor forum
Published Work
  • The Quiet Discipline of Buy-Sell Agreements · Lone Star Counsel Journal · Vol. I No. 03
  • Dynasty Trust Planning Under the New Federal Estate-Tax Exemption · Lone Star Counsel Journal · Vol. III No. 11
  • Chapter 7 and Chapter 11: The Two Reliefs · Lone Star Counsel Journal · Vol. IV No. 01
  • Domestic Asset Protection Trusts, Reconsidered · Lone Star Counsel Journal · Vol. III No. 09
  • Additional bar journal contributions and CLE materials furnished on request
Press & Recognition

Cited counsel,
quietly noted.

Media inquiries and speaking requests may be directed to the firm.

As Featured In
Texas LawyerDallas Business JournalTexas Bar JournalFrisco EnterpriseState Bar of Texas · CLENorth Texas Business Alliance
Texas Lawyer
2025
Quoted commentary · Staff report

“On the practical limits of Chapter 11 for middle-market Texas businesses”

“For a middle-market Texas business, Subchapter V is almost always the right first question. The traditional Chapter 11 case that costs seven figures to run has priced itself out of the very companies it was designed to save.”

Dallas Business Journal
2024
Featured practitioner · Business Voices

“The dually-licensed attorney/CPA advantage in North Texas succession planning”

Profile of the firm's cross-disciplinary approach to family-owned business succession — the tax model and the legal instrument built as one document, not two.

Texas Bar Journal
2024
Contributing author · By Darryl V. Pratt

“Buy-Sell Agreements: A Practitioner's Discipline”

Contributed feature on the five triggering events every closely-held Texas business should draft around, and the one funding mistake that voids the discipline of the entire agreement.

Frisco Enterprise
2023
Community feature · Frisco business desk

“A boutique law practice, deliberately small”

Coverage of the firm's founding philosophy — a deliberately small roster of Texas families and business owners, the counsel that doesn't rotate.

State Bar of Texas · CLE
2025
Continuing legal education · Program materials

“Estate Planning Under the New Federal Exemption — Texas Considerations”

Contributed CLE materials on dynasty trusts, SLATs, GRATs, and Texas community-property considerations under the current federal exemption framework.

North Texas Business Alliance
2024
Speaker · Annual symposium

“Panelist — “The Founder's Second Decade: Wealth, Governance, Legacy””

Panel remarks on the wealth-governance transition second-decade Texas founders face — from operating-company distributions to family-office architecture.

Oak

When you are ready,
we are here.