Robert C. Prather, Sr.

In 1971, Robert C. Prather, Sr., served as staff Attorney and Committee Clerk to State Senator William T. Moore and the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee, 61st Legislative Session.  In June 1971, he became an Assistant to District Attorney Henry Wade in Dallas, Texas.  After serving as a felony prosecutor, he was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, in July 1974.  He directed a task force prosecuting major white collar crime cases, for which he received the United States Department of Justice Special Achievement Award.  In 1980, Mr. Prather became the Economic Crime Enforcement Specialist of the United States Department of Justice for the Northern and Western Districts of Texas. His responsibilities included coordinating federal, state and local law enforcement agency efforts in combating economic crime.  From 1981-1983, Mr. Prather was an associate of the firm of Turner, Rodgers, Sailers, Jordan & Calloway and in 1983, became a founding partner of Jordan, Dunlap, Prather & Harris, L.L.P.  On  January 1, 2007, he became a shareholder in Snell, Wylie & Tibbals, P.C.  He has tried over 125 jury trials to verdict.

Mr. Prather is licensed to practice before the Supreme Court of Texas and the United States Supreme Court, Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals and Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas.  He is a member of the American, Texas and Dallas Bar Associations, the College of the State Bar of Texas and has served on the Judiciary (Chairman 1993, Outstanding Committee Chair 1994), Courthouse and Federal Judiciary Complaint Committees ADR and Collaborative Law sections of the Dallas Bar Association.  He is a civil trial lawyer in the state and federal courts representing plaintiffs and defendants.  His work includes contract, commercial issues, business organizations, real estate, residential construction, landlord and tenant, homeowners & condominium associations, employment relations, lender liability, telecommunications, probate, and consumer protection and related litigation.  Most of the cases he handled as an Assistant United States Attorney involved the defrauding of some governmental agency, providing him with a close working relationship with a number of the governmental agencies.

Since 1988, Mr. Prather has served as a mediator in 200+ mediations.  Since 1991, he has served as an arbitrator with 80+ arbitrations and is an American Arbitration Association panel member.  He has over 400 hours of ADR training, he is a certified mediator by the Association of Attorney Mediators, is "Credential Advanced" by the Texas Mediator Credentialing Association, is a member of numerous ADR organizations and the 2003 President  of Association of Attorney-Mediators, North Texas Chapter.  Mr. Prather is also co-author of Texas ADR Practice Guide (West Group, 1995); an Adjunct Professor since 1993, and a member of the American Arbitration Association Seminar Faculty. He is a Certified Hearing Examiner with the Texas Education Agency. Mr. Prather is trained in collaborative law and is on the advisory board of Texas Collaborative Law Council and 2008 Chair of the Dallas Bar Association's Collaborative Law Section.

Mr. Prather was Foreman of the Dallas County Grand Jury-January 2008, has been a member of the Rotary Club of Dallas since 1971 (Director, Trustee), was a youth soccer coach, and director and officer of the Jaycees of Dallas.  He was a founder, director and General Counsel of the Children's Cancer Fund of Dallas (now Over the Rainbow) at Children's Medical Center.  He taught boys and young married's Sunday School classes at First Baptist Church of Dallas for 16 years, where he is a Deacon.

Mr. Prather was selected a Rotary International Foundation Scholar in 1968, studying for one year at the University of Tasmania Law School, Hobart Tasmania, Australia.  He was selected as one of four 1970 summer law clerks for the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, D.C.  He received his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Texas, Austin, December 1970.

Mr. Prather graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in Communications and a minor in Business.