FOREWORD BY PAMELA E. GEORGEt
Over the past forty years the practice of family law has evolved so that it is currently one of the most sophisticated, if not complicated, areas of practice. Gone are the days of divorce decrees that did little more than break the bonds of marriage, appending a list of properties that each party would take at the end of the marriage. Child custody was seldom an issue, the presumption being that a child should be placed with their mother. The evolution that family law has undergone is most likely linked to the advent of board certification in family law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. 1 Beginning in 1975, lawyers in Texas could be come board certified in family law;2 thereafter, one began seeing cases tried in the family law courts that were anything but one dimensional. Creative lawyers began importing principles and remedies from other areas of practice, applying them to marriage dissolution cases. For example, issues of marital property expanded so that divorce lawyers, when dividing marital assets, had to be familiar with the law of business organizations; i.e., corporations,3 partnerships, joint ven tures,4 etc. From this base, lawyers began applying corporate opportu nity doctrine, reimbursement principles,5 and examining tax treatment to argue ultimate characterization.6 Lawyers also had to know valuat Pamela E. George has been a Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law Houston since 1981. Primarily, she teaches Texas Family Law and Texas Marital Property Law, but on occasion she teaches seminars and has been known to take on Texas Proce dure courses. Professor George is Board Certified in Family Law and Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. l. About TBLS, TEX. BOARD LEGAL SPECIALIZATION, http://www.tbls.org/ About.aspx (last visited Nov. 16, 2016). 2. Id. 3. See Vallone v. Vallone, 644 S.W.2d 455 (Tex. 1982). 4. See Small v. Harper, 638 S.W.2d 24 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1982, writ ref'd n.r.e.). 5. See Anderson v. Gilliland, 684 S.W.2d 673 (Tex. 1985). 6. See Thomas v. Thomas, 738 S.W.2d 342 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1987, writ denied). Xlll