The firm
Two names on the door. Both in the room.
Ostrander & Vale was founded on an unfashionable idea: that a law firm can publish its fees, keep its partners in the consultations, and still be here a decade later. It is, they did, and it is.
The partners
Eleanor Ostrander
Estate planning · probate · family law
Eleanor spent her first years of practice watching families pay hourly rates to learn what a flat fee could have told them upfront. The firm's published fee schedule was her idea, and she has personally signed every estate-planning engagement letter since 2012. Clients describe her the same way opposing counsel does: prepared.
- State Bar of Texas · probate and estate section
- The written probate roadmap: hers
- Known for saying "you don't need a trust" when you don't
Julian Vale
Business · contracts · civil litigation
Julian tries cases and — more often — keeps clients out of them. Every litigation matter he takes starts with a written budget and a settle-versus-try analysis he updates monthly, because a client who can't see the economics of their own case can't make good decisions about it. Small businesses keep him on speed dial; he prefers it that way.
- State Bar of Texas · civil trial practice
- The monthly litigation accounting: his
- Known for talking clients out of winnable-but-worthless fights
Since 2012
A dozen years on Commerce Street.
The firm stays deliberately small — two partners, one paralegal each, no associates learning on your dime. Routine matters are flat-fee because after a decade you know what a will package costs to do properly. Litigation is budgeted because surprise invoices are a choice, and the firm chooses otherwise.
- Licensed by the State Bar of Texas
- Published fee schedule — on the wall and on this site
- Engagement letter before work begins, every matter
- Consultations with a partner, $150, credited on engagement
- Deadline-flagged calls returned first, same day
Judge us by one consultation.
Bring the will that needs updating or the contract that worries you. Forty-five minutes with a partner, a written next step, and the fee credited if you engage.