Pratt Law Group, PLLC d/b/a Lone Star Counsel

Texas Business, Wealth & Legacy Counsel

Lone Star Counsel is a boutique Texas law firm advising entrepreneurs, business owners, physicians, professionals, and high-net-worth families through every stage of the business and wealth lifecycle — from formation and growth to protection, restructuring, succession, and legacy preservation.

Practice Areas: Business Law · Bankruptcy & Restructuring · Estate Planning · Asset Protection · Trust & Probate · Physician-Practice Counsel · Intellectual Property · Private Client Services

Founder & Managing Partner: Darryl V. Pratt, Esq., CPA — dually licensed Texas attorney and Certified Public Accountant, nearly 30 years of experience.

Offices:

Frisco (Principal) — 2591 Dallas Parkway, Suite 300, Frisco, Texas 75034
Round Rock (Austin) — 1000 Heritage Center Circle, Round Rock, Texas 78664
Boerne (San Antonio) — 1415 E. Blanco Road, #8, Boerne, Texas 78006
The Woodlands — 9595 Six Pines Drive, Bldg 8, 2nd Floor, Suite 8210, The Woodlands, Texas 77380
Sugar Land — 2245 Texas Drive, Suite 170, Sugar Land, Texas 77479

Telephone: (972) 712-1515 · Toll-Free: (888) 517-4575
Email: info@LoneStarCounsel.com · Web: https://LoneStarCounsel.com

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$Lone Star Counsel \u2014 Attorneys & Advisors$

The Journal

Notes from
the firm.

Weekly blogs and essays on Texas business law, business succession planning, buy-sell agreements, asset purchase agreements, mergers and acquisitions, trusts, estate planning, family wealth, probate and restructuring. Plain-spoken. No filler.

Lone Star Counsel inaugural family edition: You Created a Living Trust—But Did You Fund It? Featuring diverse families and Darryl V. Pratt, Esq., CPA.

Estate Planning & Trusts · FeaturedOctober 24, 2026 · 6 min read

You Created a Living Trust—But Did You Fund It?

A signed living trust is an important step—but do your ownership records match your plan?

Our inaugural family-planning article uses Prince’s documented estate history as a starting point for a practical discussion of planning follow-through. His situation involved dying without a will; it is not presented as an example of an unfunded trust.

Learn what to review across real estate, financial accounts, beneficiary designations, and business interests—and use our checklist to identify questions worth discussing with your attorney.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt, Esq., CPA

Nearly 30 Years of Experience | Licensed in Texas & Oklahoma

(972) 712-1515|(888) 517-4575

Planning Today. Protecting Tomorrow.®

Read the Full Article

Business SuccessionOctober 2026 · 8 min

Buying Into a Professional Practice? Plan Your Buyout Before You Sign.

What Texas physicians, dentists, CPAs, and other licensed professionals should settle before buying into a practice — because the day you buy in is the best day you will ever have to negotiate how you get out.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

RestructuringNovember 2026 · 10 min

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Texas: Benefits, Risks, Documents, and the Discharge Timeline

Medical bills, a loss of income, business setbacks, and mounting credit card balances can make it difficult to see a way forward. What Chapter 7 does, what it does not, the documents to gather, and how the four-month timeline from filing to discharge actually unfolds.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Estate PlanningOctober 2026 · 7 min

Equal or Fair? How Texas Parents Can Plan Inheritances Without Leaving a Family Fight

Most Texas parents say they want to treat their children equally. In practice, treating children equally and treating them fairly are not always the same thing. Sorting out the difference during a parent's lifetime is the surest way to reduce the risk of a family fight after death.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

ProbateSeptember 2026 · 6 min

Found a Deceased Family Member's Unclaimed Property in Texas? When Probate May Be Needed

You search the Texas Comptroller's unclaimed property site and find an account, an uncashed check, or other property in a parent's or spouse's name. The discovery is welcome news. Then comes the difficult question: Who has the legal right to claim it?

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Business & RegulatoryAugust 2026 · 8 min

FinCEN Ends the CTA: What the End of Beneficial Ownership Reporting Means for Every Texas Business Owner

On August 11, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule that permanently removes the Corporate Transparency Act's beneficial ownership reporting obligation for U.S. companies and U.S. persons — and announced that previously reported information will be deleted from the FinCEN database. A plain-English guide to what the change means, who is still covered, and what every Texas business owner should do next.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Creators & AthletesFebruary 2026 · 10 min

The Case for Registering Your Trademark Before Your Next Brand Deal

By the time a copycat channel appears — same name, similar logo, slightly different spelling — a creator has usually already signed six brand deals and a talent agency contract, none of which contemplate that another person is now competing for the same brand. A field guide for creators, athletes, and founder-creators who have not yet filed.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Creators & AthletesFebruary 2026 · 12 min

The Creator's LLC: Why Your Brand Isn't Actually Yours Yet

A candid field guide for the six-figure creator, athlete, or founder-creator who is still operating out of a personal checking account — and the four legal structures that separate a genuine enterprise from an expensive hobby.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Bankruptcy & RestructuringFebruary 2026 · 11 min

Chapter 7 and Chapter 11: The Two Reliefs

A field guide for the Texas business owner on choosing between liquidation and reorganization — and the third option most lawyers do not mention.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

SuccessionDecember 2025 · 9 min

The Quiet Discipline of Buy-Sell Agreements

One page resolves a thousand future arguments. Most business owners sign it too late — here's how to get it right the first time.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Wealth StructureNovember 2025 · 10 min

Dynasty Trust Planning Under the New Federal Estate-Tax Exemption

With the federal basic exclusion amount set at $15 million per individual for 2026, high-net-worth families should revisit dynasty trust, gifting, portability, business succession, and multigenerational wealth-planning strategies under the current law.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

TransactionsOctober 2025 · 7 min

The Patient Acquisition

The best Texas roll-ups are negotiated over coffee and closed before lunch. A field guide to acquisitive growth without theater.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Asset ProtectionSeptember 2025 · 9 min

Domestic Asset Protection Trusts, Reconsidered

Where the law has caught up to the marketing — and where it has not. A candid review of which structures still hold.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

Family OfficeAugust 2025 · 7 min

When the Family Office Outgrows the Family

Governance choices when capital matures faster than the institutions built to steward it. What the founding generation built to serve one household eventually has to answer to many.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

RestructuringJuly 2025 · 6 min

Texas Recapitalizations Without the Theatrics

How to recalibrate a closely held capital stack without burning down the partnership. The leveraged recap is a Wall Street phrase; in Texas closely held companies, it can be a quiet, tax-aware course correction.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

CharitableJune 2025 · 8 min

Conservation Easements, Done Quietly

What survives audit, what doesn’t — a decade of lessons from West Texas ranchland. The bona fide conservation easement remains a defensible planning tool. The syndicated version does not.

Darryl V. Pratt

Darryl V. Pratt

Managing Partner

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The Journal, by post or by inbox.
Quarterly. Never sold.

Each volume contains three to four plain-spoken essays from the firm. No promotional copy, no upselling. Just the work.

A Quarterly Dispatch

The State of the Firm, by post.

A signed letter, four times a year, from the Managing Partner. Firm developments, industry notes, and the counsel we are preparing to keep. Sent by post and adapted for LinkedIn.