Profile

Education

Harvard Law School, J.D., 1981
Yale University, B.A., 1978

Career Highlights

  • 1986, Judge, 298th (Civil) Judicial District Court, Dallas, Texas
  • 1991-1994, First Assistant Attorney General, State of Texas
  • 1988-1990, Partner, Taft & Pryor, Dallas
  • 1987, Of Counsel, Winstead Sechrest & Minick, Dallas
  • 1981-1986, Associate, Thompson & Knight, Dallas
  • 4,500+ Mediations & Arbitrations
  • Member, American Law Institute
  • Author, A Short & Happy Guide to Mediation (2nd edition, West 2022)
  • “AV” rated – Martindale Hubbell
  • “Best Lawyer in Dallas”, D Magazine (every year list has been published)
  • “Texas SuperLawyer”, Texas Monthly Magazine (every year list has been published)
  • Member, Executive Committee, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, and Charter Member and Executive Committee Member, Texas Academy of Distinguished Neutrals
  • Adjunct Instructor, ADR, Dedman School of Law at SMU for 15 years
  • Adjunct Lecturer, Arbitration, Center for Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management at SMU in Plano, Winter Term 2011-2012
  • Adjunct Instructor, Arbitration Practice & Advocacy, Pepperdine Law School, Malibu, California, Fall 2010.
  • Author, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Annual Survey of Texas Law (63 SMU Law Review 275, Spring 2010), (62 SMU Law Review 843, Summer 2009) , and (61 SMU Law Review 519, Summer 2008).
  • Co-author, Public Policy ADR: Confidentiality in Conflict?, 46 SMU Law Review 2207 (Summer 1993)
  • Co-author, Concurrent Mediation of Liability and Insurance Coverage Disputes, 4 Conn. Ins. L. J. 485 (Summer 1998)
  • Member, Association of Attorney-Mediators
  • Former Adjunct Instructor, Trial Advocacy, Dedman School of Law at SMU
  • Speaker, dozens of CLE and in-house training programs
  • 50+ hours of mediation training from the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Austin, Texas, and the Straus Institute at Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, California
  • Katie Award from the Press Club of Dallas in 2004 for essay, My Friend Dan, published in Texas Lawyer
  • 2013 Best Human Interest Essay Award from the State Bar of Texas for “The Inky Blue Water“, published in the Dallas Bar Headnotes in October 2012

Will Pryor is married to Ellen Smith Pryor, for decades a professor at the UNT Dallas College of Law and the Dedman School of Law, and now retired. Will is the proud father of Lindsey, an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Texas, and Emily, who provides mental health and grief counseling at a non-profit clinic in Washington, DC.   Will was born in Arkansas, grew up in Dallas, and attended public schools in Dallas and Richmond, Virginia, before his opportunity to serve during his final two years of high school as a Congressional Page in the United States House of Representatives.

During Will’s senior year, at the height of the “Watergate era”, he served as the Speaker’s Page, the personal page to the Speaker of the House of Representatives (the Honorable Carl Albert, Dem.-Oklahoma). As an undergraduate at Yale University , Will was both the Chairman of the student government organization, the Yale College Council, and Captain of the varsity baseball team. Will was frequently asked by other pitchers on the team’s pitching staff, “Will, show me how you hold a triple”.

Will was a co-founder, along with the late, great Honorable Merrill Hartman, of the South Dallas Legal Clinic, the precursor of the neighborhood legal clinics in Dallas and the most successful pro bono project in the United States. Will was twice a recipient of the “Pro Bono Award of the Year” from the Dallas Bar Association and North Texas Legal Services.

In 2006 Will was the Democratic Party nominee for the United States House of Representatives (32nd – Texas).  He lost!

Will is an elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas and a volunteer “Big” with Big Brothers & Big Sisters.  Will is currently working on a book about door-to-door campaigning.