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Meredith McIver is a partner in the Austin office of Ytterberg Deery Knull LLP, where she advises families on estate planning and trust and estate administration. She is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.  Meredith serves as a Council Member of the State Bar of Texas Real Estate, Probate, and Trust Law Section, where she chairs the Estate and Trust Legislative Affairs Committee. She is also a member of the Decedents’ Estates committee of the Texas Real Estate and Probate Institute, and the Estate Planning Council of Central Texas, where she serves as Treasurer.  She earned her LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Houston Law Center, her J.D. from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, and her B.A. in Politics from Washington & Lee University.

Dr. Gerry W. Beyer joined the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Law in June 2005 as the first holder of the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professorship. Previously, Prof. Beyer taught as a professor or visiting professor at several other law schools including Boston College, Boston University, The Ohio State University, Southern Methodist University, the University of New Mexico, Santa Clara University, St. Mary’s University, and La Trobe University in Australia.

Prof. Beyer is admitted to practice in Texas, Illinois (inactive), Ohio (inactive) and before the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Prof. Beyer is the recipient of dozens of outstanding and distinguished faculty awards from three law schools including the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the most prestigious university-wide teaching award at Texas Tech, the 2015 President’s Academic Achievement Award, and the Outstanding (Law) Researcher Award in 2013 and 2017.

As a state and nationally recognized expert in estate planning, Prof. Beyer is a highly sought after lecturer. He presents dozens of continuing legal education presentations each year for many national, state, and local bar associations, universities, and civic groups. In recognition of his expertise and contributions to the legal profession, the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils inducted him into the Estate Planning Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2022, Prof. Beyer was awarded the Distinguished Probate Attorney Lifetime Achievement Award by the Real Estate, Probate, and Trust Law Section of State Bar of Texas.

Prof. Beyer is the editor of the most popular estate planning blawg in the nation which after being named for five consecutive years to the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 was awarded Hall of Fame status in 2015.

Prof. Beyer is the author of dozens of books and hundreds of articles focusing on various aspects of estate planning, including a two-volume treatise on Texas wills law, an estate planning law school casebook, and the Wills, Trusts, and Estates volume of the Examples & Explanations series. He has four times won awards from the American Bar Association’s Probate & Property magazine for his writing. He is one of the most often downloaded law authors on the Social Science Research Network with a ranking in the top .001%.  Prof. Beyer is the Editor-in-Chief of the REPTL Reporter, the official journal of the largest section of the State Bar of Texas, the Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section.

Prof. Beyer serves as a mentor to many students and various law school organizations as well participating regularly in pro bono activities. He is the advisor for the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal and its annual seminar, the Black Law Students Association, and the Estate and Property Law Society.

Prof. Beyer received his J.D. from the Ohio State University (summa cum laude) and his LL.M. and J.SD. degrees from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Order of the Coif, an Academic Fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a member of the American Law Institute, and was appointed by the Uniform Law Commission as the Reporter for the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act and the Integration of Probate and Non-Probate Transfers Study Committee.

Gregory E. Martin received his J.D. from Texas Tech University School of Law and his LL.M. in Taxation from SMU Dedman School of Law. He is licensed in Texas and New Mexico. Gregory is also board certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and graduated from the inaugural class of the Rocky Mountain Fellows Institute of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) in November 2024.

Currently, Gregory is a partner in the Estate Planning and Probate Section at Kelly Hart where he provides comprehensive estate planning and probate services to a wide range of clients in Texas and New Mexico. Additionally, Gregory has extensive experience in entity formations and governance; trust formations and modifications; and nonprofits and charitable giving.

Gus is a 1987 graduate with high honors of the University of Houston Law Center. While

in law school, Gus wrote for the Houston Law Review, which published Gus’ article which won an

award, served as Chief Justice of the Honor Court, and won the Distinguished Service Award.

After beginning practice at some larger firms in the area civil litigation, Gus started his own

firm in 1993 and begin to focus his practice on probate, guardianship, trusts, and related litigation,

administration of estates, and estate planning. Later, Gus completed mediation training and now

also mediates cases in those same areas of law.

Gus has served as an adjunct professor of law in the area of Trusts & Wills at the University

of Houston Law Center since 2014. Gus is a frequent speaker and author for the State Bar and other

organizations, and has had several articles published in law journals, including his most recent

article, “If You Kill Your Honey, Don’t Expect the Money,” published in 2024 in the Estate Planning

& Community Property Law Journal.

Gus has been considered among the Best Lawyers in America in the area of Trusts & Estates

each year since 2019, and among the Super Lawyers in Texas in the area of Estate Planning &

Probate since 2016.

Judge Sarah R. Duff presides over the statutory Probate Court of Collin County, Texas, one of 25 such courts in the State of Texas.  Judge Duff was unanimously appointed to the Probate Court bench by the Collin County Commissioner’s Court and has served since February 2024.   Judge Duff is a proud graduate of Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and obtained her law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law.    

Prior to taking the bench, Judge Duff practiced law for 17 years, focusing on probate, guardianship, estate planning, and civil litigation.  She frequently served as attorney ad litem and guardian ad litem for proposed wards in guardianship matters.  Judge Duff also served as associate judge for the Probate Court of Collin County, conducting hearings involving mental health matters.    

Judge Duff is involved in many different community groups.  She currently volunteers with her church as a Sunday school aide and is a co-leader for her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop.  Judge Duff frequently speaks to different groups about the functions of the Probate Court and the importance of estate planning.     Judge Duff also previously served as Chair of the Estate Planning and Probate Section of the Collin County Bar Association.  She is also a Past President for the Collin County Young Lawyers. Judge Duff served on the McKinney Chamber of Commerce Board. 

Deborah J. Tedford is an attorney and principal in the Tedford Law Firm of Mystic, Connecticut. She graduated from Yale College, cum laude, in one of the first classes to include women, and from Boston University School of Law. She is also a qualified mediator, having completed 40 hours of training.

Deb was elected President of the Connecticut Bar Association, an organization of over 11,000 members, for the year 2002-2003. She is a past chairman of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Estates and Probate Section and also of its Elder Law Section. She was founding editor of the Estates and Probate Newsletter and a past president of the Southeastern Connecticut Estate and Tax Planning Council. She currently is co-Chair of the CBA’s annual Federal Tax Institute of New England. 

Deb was elected a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel

(ACTEC); was elected as a fellow of both the Connecticut and American Bar Foundations. She served three years as Chair of the Elder Law Committee of ACTEC, is a former Regent of the College and the current Connecticut State Chair. She is also Chair of the ACTEC/National College of Probate Judges Task Force, and chair of the Professional Responsibility Sub-Committee of ACTEC’s Fiduciary Litigation Committee. She is one of three Connecticut member of the Special Needs Alliance, a selective organization that focuses on the unique legal needs of those with disabilities. Deb has been named one of the Top Twenty-Five Women Super Lawyers in Connecticut as well as a top trusts and estates lawyers by Best’s. 

As part of her service to the Bar and her profession, Deb worked for years with colleagues and the Probate Administrator on a Connecticut version of the Uniform Trust Code, successfully passed on June 4, 2019. She also co-chaired and helped author the Connecticut Bar Association’s Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Connecticut Probate System, published in May 2003. Deb has testified before Connecticut’s Finance Committee on the effects of the estate tax laws in Connecticut and has also testified in favor of special needs trusts for the disabled. She was named as ACTEC’s observer to the Uniform Law Commission’s amended model guardianship and conservatorship act, and most recently as observer to the ULC’s drafting committee revising the model Uniform Health Care Decisions Act. She now serves on the ULC’s Joint Editorial Board for estate and trust matters. Finally, she was named to ACTEC’s SECURE Act Task Force to provide guidance requested by the U.S. Treasury on new regulations for retirement plan payout rules; her successful contributions focused on disabilities and chronic illness. 

Deb has written several chapters in the book Estate Planning for Modern Families from the Stephen Leimberg Library; and a chapter on Connecticut’s new DAPT law in the ABA publication, Domestic Asset Protection Trusts, edited by Alexander Bove, Jr. In her spare time, she loves all water sports, including skiing, and drafting model legislation.

Sarah Patel Pacheco is a partner with the law firm of Jackson Walker LLP where she focuses her practice to litigation, administration and tax issues relating to estate, trust, guardianship and related fiduciary appointments. She received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from Southern Methodist University, School of Law, and undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Arlington. She has been Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1998.

She is a co-author of the West Publishing’s Texas Probate Practice Guide and West Publishing’s Texas Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Practice Guide, and the Editor of the State Bar of Texas’ Guardianship Manual (4th Ed). 

Sarah has been named by Texas Monthly as One as the Top 100 Texas Super Lawyers, One of the Top 50 Female Texas Super Lawyers and One of the Top 100 Houston Super Lawyers, in addition to being named as a Texas Super Lawyers for the last 20 years. In addition, she has been named as one of The Best Lawyers in America in the practice areas of Trusts and Estates annually since 2006 and Litigation – Trusts & Estates since 2012. She was selected as Best Lawyers’ Litigation – Trusts and Estates “Lawyer of the Year” for the Houston Region in 2014, 2017, 2021 and again in 2025. And in 2024, she was ranked in Chambers High Net Worth Guide, for Private Wealth Disputes – Texas in Band 1.

In addition to serving as Chair of the Guardianship Manual Committee, she served on the State Bar of Texas Legal Specialization Estate Planning and Probate Exam Commission from 2004 - 2010, including as its Chair her last term, and on the State Bar of Texas Pattern Jury Charge Oversight Committee for two terms. She has been active in various local and state legal organizations including the Houston Bar Association, Probate, Trust & Estates Section; Chair 2009-2010: CLE Committee; Judicial Polls Committee; 2008-2010: Houston Bar Foundation, Fellow (elected 2004): Houston Young Lawyers Association; Fellow: Texas Young Lawyers Association; Needs of Senior Citizens Committee: American Bar Association: Real Property, Probate and Trust Law and Litigation Sections; Member. 

She is a frequent author and speaker for various state and local professional organizations. In addition to being a frequent speaker, she has served on numerous additional CLE planning committees including as the course director for the State Bar of Texas’ Advanced Fiduciary Litigation Course, Advanced Estate Planning Strategies Course, Advanced Estate Planning and Probate Course, Advanced Guardianship and Elder Law Course, Building Block of Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Course, and Nuts and Bolts of Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Course. 

In recognition of her contributions to the State Bar of Texas, she was awarded the 2011 Standing Ovation Award by the staff of TexBarCLE.

Jim Milton is a Shareholder and Director at Hall Estill. His primary areas of practice include trusts and estates litigation, commercial litigation and water law. Throughout his career he has focused on assisting clients with trusts and estates litigation, including probate, will contests, guardianship and elder abuse. Within this practice, Jim regularly assists other attorneys in resolving complex probate, trust and guardianship disputes - whether as first or second chair litigator, strategy consultant, or resource for research and preparation of pleadings and legal arguments. Jim also provides compliance reviews in guardianship and probate matters and assists in resolving complex real title issues in the fiduciary context.

Jim received his J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law. In addition, he is a Fellow of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel where he serves as State Chair-Elect for Oklahoma; Co-Editor of State Surveys; a Member of the Fiduciary Litigation Committee and Co-Chair of the Will and Trust Contests Subcommittee; and finally, a Member of the Fiduciary Administration and Communications Committees.

Further, Jim is recognized as a Band 2 attorney in Chambers High Net Worth Guide for Private Wealth Law and a Top 50 Lawyer in Oklahoma by Super Lawyers. Finally, Jim was recognized as Best Lawyers’ Tulsa Lawyer of the Year in 2021 for Litigation – Trusts & Estates and in 2025 for Trusts & Estates.