Dawn Ryan Budner combines over 20 years of comprehensive litigation practice with a passion for making a difference in the lives of her clients.  Dawn’s formidable skills as a trial lawyer were gleaned from years in a highly competitive, prestigious Dallas law firm, where she was made an equity partner. Dawn honed her trial skills by trying cases in state and federal courts, obtaining multi-million dollar jury verdicts. Dawn’s experience in business and corporate litigation matters gives her a breadth and depth of knowledge applicable to business issues arising in divorce.  This specialized experience provides Calabrese Huff clients with an edge when Dawn handles their large divorces with complex business and property issues. 

     Dawn also brings a real concern and empathy for the negative impact of divorce on the lives of her clients and often, their children.  When possible, Dawn guides her clients toward the collaborative process, which employs a team approach tailor made to the specific issues in the case. Dawn finds the collaborative process more satisfying to clients in even the most complex scenarios, with settlement possibilities that generally are not available at the courthouse. When litigation is the best or only course of action, Dawn is committed to making a difficult experience as productive and efficient as possible for her clients.

     Dawn graduated in the top 2% of her class at the University of Texas Law School, earning the honors of Chancellor and Order of the Coif, and serving as an Articles Editor on the Texas Law Review.  After law school, Dawn served as a briefing attorney to the former Chief Judge of the Western District of Texas.