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

• 3,000+ mediations & arbitrations
• “AV” rated – Martindale Hubbell
• “Best Lawyers 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 many 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

Will Pryor is married to Ellen Smith Pryor, Associate Provost of Southern Methodist University, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Homer Mitchell Professor of Insurance and Commercial Law. Will and Ellen are the proud parents of Lindsey, a Special Education high school teacher in San Antonio through the Teach for America program , and Emily, a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 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 (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 is a Presbyterian Church elder, and a former Trustee of the Winston School of Dallas.