Most people who message me here start with the same two questions: what's this going to cost, and how long will it take?
I'll answer both honestly, on the first call, before you've paid me anything.
That's not a slogan. It's the thing I decided I'd do differently when I opened this firm in January 2010. I had spent the years before that inside big-firm litigation and inside the Texas Capitol, and I had watched a lot of people get quoted a comfortable number and a comfortable timeline that neither the lawyer nor the client actually believed. Then reality showed up in month seven, and the client felt lied to — because they had been.
So here's how I work. I'm Shane M. Boasberg. I've been licensed to practice law in Texas since January 2003, and SMB Law, PC is my firm — a small, deliberately small, Austin practice at 1204 San Antonio Street, three blocks from the Travis County Civil and Family Courthouse. When you hire me, I am the lawyer on your case. Not an associate you meet at the hearing. Not a case manager who emails you updates written by someone else. Me.
Divorce and family law in Central Texas
This is the core of my practice. What I handle:
Divorce — contested and uncontested, high-asset and high-net-worth, collaborative, military, and LGBTQ divorce. Children's matters — custody and conservatorship, possession and access schedules, child support, relocation disputes, modifications when someone's job or living situation changes, and enforcement when the other parent stops following the order. Spousal maintenance, which most people call alimony. Protective orders and family violence matters, on either side. Agreements and orders — premarital and postnuptial agreements, QDROs to divide a 401(k) or pension, step-parent adoption, grandparents' rights, and name changes.
Some Texas specifics worth knowing before you hire anybody:
Texas has a 60-day waiting period from the day the petition is filed. Nothing gets finalized before then, even if you and your spouse agree on everything. To file here at all, one spouse must have lived in Texas for six months and in the county for 90 days.
Texas is a community property state, and this is where most people's assumptions break. Property acquired during the marriage is presumed community and gets divided in a way the court calls "just and right." That is not the same as 50/50, and courts regularly divide unevenly based on factors they're permitted to weigh. If you want something treated as your separate property — an inheritance, a business you had before the marriage, a down payment from a pre-marriage account — you carry the burden of proving it by clear and convincing evidence. That's a high standard, and it's why financial tracing work matters so much in cases where real money is involved.
On custody, Texas courts start from a presumption that parents should be joint managing conservators, but that phrase says nothing about where the child sleeps. The fights are almost always about who has the exclusive right to determine primary residence, and about the possession schedule. Every decision gets measured against the best interest of the child, which sounds vague until you've seen how consistently judges apply it to a specific set of facts.
Personal injury — the other half of what I do
I also represent people injured in car accidents, truck and 18-wheeler collisions, motorcycle wrecks, bicycle and pedestrian crashes, rideshare and scooter accidents, drunk driving and hit-and-run cases, and uninsured or underinsured motorist claims. I handle wrongful death cases for families.
I keep both practice areas because clients' lives don't split cleanly. A parent in a custody fight gets hit on I-35. Someone recovering from a truck wreck, out of work and burning through savings, gets served with divorce papers. At a big firm that means a transfer to a different department and starting over with a stranger. Here it means the same lawyer, who already knows everything.
It also means I catch things that get missed when two lawyers never speak. An injury settlement received while you're married doesn't have one single character under Texas law: recovery for pain, suffering, and disfigurement is generally your separate property, while lost wages and medical expenses incurred during the marriage are generally community. If your divorce lawyer and your injury lawyer aren't talking, that distinction quietly costs someone real money.
One deadline I'll repeat to anyone who'll listen: Texas gives you two years to file most injury suits. But if a government entity is involved, the Tort Claims Act requires notice within six months — and if your claim is against the City of Austin, the city charter cuts that to 45 days. I have watched good claims die on that 45-day rule because nobody mentioned it existed.
What actually happens when you contact me through Thumbtack
Since you're probably messaging three or four attorneys today, here's exactly what you get from me.
A real reply, from me. Not an auto-response, not a canned "thanks for your interest." I'll ask you a couple of specific questions about your situation, because I can't say anything useful until I know whether there are kids, whether there's property in dispute, and whether anything has already been filed.
A free consultation that is an actual consultation. I'll walk you through the process, tell you what I think your realistic timeline looks like, and give you a candid read on the parts of your case that worry me. If I think you can handle something without a lawyer, I'll say that too. I've told people to save their money more than once.
A straight answer on cost. Family law matters are hourly against a retainer, and I put the rate and the retainer in writing before you engage me — no surprise invoices, no vague "it depends." Personal injury is contingency: no fee unless we recover for you, with the percentage stated up front, and you never see an hourly bill.
No pressure to decide on the call. I'd rather you compare and come back than hire me in a panic on a Tuesday afternoon.
Six free tools, no email required
Before you talk to any lawyer, go run the numbers yourself. There are six free tools on my site at law-smb.com — no signup, no email capture, no follow-up call:
Texas Child Support Calculator — current guidelines including the $11,700 net-resources cap and the low-income schedule
Texas Alimony Calculator — enforces the actual Chapter 8 caps and duration limits
Texas Divorce Cost Calculator — four questions, and it gives you a realistic cost band rather than a number designed to make you feel better
Texas Injury Deadline Calculator — with a live countdown, including the Austin 45-day trap
Car Accident Settlement Estimator — gives a range, never a promise; no calculator can tell you what a case is worth
Austin Dangerous Intersections Map — built from City of Austin Vision Zero records: 37,012 crashes, 286 deaths, and 25,060 injuries from January 2023 through December 2025, mapped and ranked
I built these because the questions never change, and people deserve an answer before they're a client.
Background
Born in New Orleans, came to Texas for school and stayed. B.A. in Government and History from the University of Texas at Austin, 1999. J.D. from South Texas College of Law in Houston, 2002. State Bar of Texas admission on January 16, 2003, bar number 24038249; also admitted in the Southern District of Texas federal court.
Before I opened my own doors: law clerk at Gallagher, Lewis, Downey & Kim during law school, working on large commercial litigation. Associate at Heard, Robins, Cloud, Lubel & Greenwood LLP in Houston. General Counsel to Texas State Senator Mario Gallegos, drafting legislation and doing legal analysis at the Capitol. And time at the Office of the Texas Attorney General handling transportation, eminent domain, administrative law, and legislative liaison work.
That last one comes up more than you'd expect. When a claim involves a city vehicle, a road design decision, or a notice requirement buried in a municipal charter, having worked on the government side is a practical advantage, not a line on a résumé.
Texas Monthly / Texas Super Lawyers named me a Rising Star four times — 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016 — a recognition extended to roughly the top 2.5% of Texas attorneys, selected through peer nomination and independent research.
Memberships: State Bar of Texas · Austin Bar Association · Texas Trial Lawyers Association · Capital Area Trial Lawyers Association. The firm is accredited by the Better Business Bureau.
Why the firm stays small
I get asked whether I plan to grow, and the answer is no — at least not in the way that question usually means.
Roughly three people work here. That caps how many cases I can take at once, and it means I turn work away in busy stretches. It also means nothing about your case gets learned secondhand. I've read every page in your file because I'm the one who put it there. When opposing counsel calls to negotiate, they're talking to the person who will try the case if it doesn't settle, and they know it.
The tradeoff is real and I won't pretend otherwise: a larger firm has more bodies to throw at a document-heavy case, and there are matters where that genuinely wins. But for a contested divorce or custody case in the mid-market — which is most of what walks through this door — the client's actual problem is usually that nobody is paying attention. That's the problem I'm built to solve.
Where I practice
All of Travis County — Austin, Manor, Del Valle, Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills. Williamson County — Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Leander, Pflugerville, Hutto, Taylor. Hays County — San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs, Wimberley. Also Bastrop.
Being three blocks from the courthouse isn't a marketing detail. When a judge sets an emergency hearing on two hours' notice, I can be there.
Being straight about fit
Call me if you want the attorney handling your case to be the person who answers the phone, if you're in a contested divorce or custody matter and feel like a file number somewhere else, or if you've been hurt in a Central Texas crash and want someone who'll actually call you back.
Call someone else if you have a nine-figure marital estate needing a full valuation team, or a catastrophic injury claim requiring millions in case financing against a national defense firm. Those firms exist and those cases belong with them. I'll tell you that for free rather than take a retainer and figure it out later.
Questions I get constantly
How long will my divorce take? Sixty days is the floor. Uncontested with no kids and no property can land close to it. Contested with custody and property usually runs six months to a year.
Will I have to testify in court? Probably not. Travis County requires mediation in most contested family cases and the large majority settle there.
Is Texas 50/50? No. "Just and right," which is frequently uneven.
Can I change custody later? Yes, through a modification, but you generally have to show a material and substantial change in circumstances.
How fast do I need to act on an injury claim? Two years in most cases. Six months if a government entity is involved. Forty-five days if it's the City of Austin.
What's the first meeting cost? Nothing.
Reach me
SMB Law, PC · 1204 San Antonio Street, Suite 201, Austin, TX 78701 · **************
Message me here or call. Free consultation either way.
This profile is general information about my firm and about Texas law. It is not legal advice, and reading it doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts, and past results never guarantee a future outcome.
