Esther R. Donald

About Esther R. Donald

Couples who want to end a marriage respectfully, without a courtroom fight, often turn to Esther R. Donald. She is a Master Credentialed Collaborative Professional through Collaborative Divorce Texas and a partner with more than two decades of experience in family law. The parents she represents want to protect their children’s stability. Her gray-divorce clients are dividing finances built over a long marriage. In each case, she keeps the most important decisions in the family’s hands rather than a judge’s.

Many of these matters carry real financial complexity. In a gray divorce, that can mean retirement accounts, a home built up over decades, and the needs of grown children. For parents, it means a parenting plan that works for the children and for both homes. Esther also advises clients with substantial marital estates and prepares prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. Throughout, she protects her clients’ privacy and keeps the tone respectful.

Esther brings both professional experience and personal perspective to this work. As a parent and stepparent who has experienced divorce herself, she understands how quickly conflict can deepen and how lasting its effects can be. That perspective reinforces her belief that the strongest resolutions come through compassion, problem-solving, and careful preparation rather than unnecessary confrontation. She listens closely, asks the right questions, and helps clients set realistic goals before choosing a path. Focusing on interests rather than positions, she helps clients weigh their options with restraint and good judgment. Her goal is an agreement that protects her clients’ financial future while shielding children from unnecessary conflict. If a matter cannot be resolved by agreement, she works closely with the firm’s experienced family law litigators to protect her client’s interests.

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What Sets Her Apart

• Master Credentialed in Collaborative Divorce. She earned Collaborative Divorce Texas’s Master Credentialed Collaborative Professional designation in 2026, after first being credentialed in 2021.
• A Practice Focused Outside the Courtroom. Most of her cases are resolved through collaborative, cooperative, or negotiated divorce rather than litigation.
• A Leader in Collaborative Law Education. She served as Course Director of the State Bar of Texas Annual Collaborative Law Course in 2022. She has joined its faculty every year since 2020.
• Experience With Gray Divorce. She guides couples divorcing after 50 through retirement assets, grown children, and complex estates. She also writes on the subject, including Why Gray Divorce Is on the Rise After 50.
• More Than Two Decades in Texas Family Law. Licensed since 1988 and practicing family law since 2004, she brings judgment, perspective, and settlement experience that come with more than two decades of practice. 
• A Leader in the Collaborative Bar. She is the Immediate Past President of Collaborative Divorce Collin County and a past Chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s Collaborative Law Section.

Practice Focus

Esther advises clients who want to resolve family law matters with privacy, dignity, and as little conflict as possible:

• Collaborative Divorce. Her central practice — guiding both spouses, via a team approach, to a settlement reached entirely outside court. 
• Negotiated Divorce. Helping couples who are ready to settle reach agreement directly, while she manages the legal and financial details.
• Gray Divorce. Counsel for couples divorcing after 50, with care for retirement assets, long-held property, and grown children.
• High Net Worth Divorce. Representing clients with substantial or complex marital estates, with close attention to privacy and long-term security.
• Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements. Drafting and reviewing agreements that define property and expectations before or during a marriage.
• Parenting Schedules. Building parenting plans around the children’s needs and the realities of both parents’ lives.

Recognition and Credentials

Esther is consistently recognized as one of Texas’s top family law attorneys. She has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Family Law since 2017 and for Collaborative Law: Family Law since 2024. D Magazine named her Best Lawyers in Dallas for 2025 and 2026. Thomson Reuters has selected her to Texas Super Lawyers every year since 2016, and LawDragon named her to 500 Leading Family Lawyers for 2025 and 2026. In 2022, she made Thomson Reuters’ Top 100: Dallas/Fort Worth and Top 50 Women Texas Super Lawyers lists.

Esther’s leadership extends across the Texas collaborative law community. She served as Vice President of the State Bar’s Collaborative Law Council for 2024–2025 and was a charter board member and secretary of the Collin County Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section. She is also a Fellow of both the Dallas Bar Association and the Dallas Bar Foundation.

Esther also contributes to the education of other family lawyers. Beyond directing the State Bar’s collaborative course, she has spoken and written on incorporating adult children into the collaborative process, creative approaches to children’s expenses, spousal maintenance for the non-monied spouse, and trends in the Standard Possession Order. Her presentations include the Texas Center for the Judiciary’s Family Justice Conference.

Beyond the Practice

Esther’s approach to family law is personal. As a parent and stepparent who has lived through the realities of divorce, she has seen how much harm an adversarial process can do, and has spent her career helping families avoid it. A University of Texas graduate, she cheers for the Longhorns and the Tulane Green Wave, is a longtime member of Temple Emanu-El, and remains a passionate advocate for helping clients divorce differently, with compassion and dignity.