Meet Talmage Boston

How I Use Words in Multiple Arenas

Winston Churchill once said, “Words are the only things that last forever.” That’s true whether they flow out of a mouth, pen, or computer. It’s also true whether they’re used to persuade, enlighten, or entertain. When advocating in a courtroom, speaking to an audience, or writing for publication, my goal in all my communications is to abide by Thomas Jefferson’s wisdom: “Never use two words when one will do.”

My career as a legal advocate has been devoted to handling business disputes for over 40 years. An essential requirement for doing what I’ve done as a commercial litigator is being a quick study. With that trait in my lawyer toolkit, I’ve handled a wide variety of complex cases.

What I’ve accomplished for my clients in trial and appellate courts and arbitration proceedings has resulted in some nice

Abraham Lincoln correctly noted the relationship between successful lawyering and speaking in the civic arena when he said: “Public speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.” In recent times, my many years of developing my oratory skills has paid off with the opportunity to speak in front of large audiences at several Prestigious Venues.

(Click here, to see past and upcoming events.)

In addition to the nexus between legal advocacy and public speaking, being a trial lawyer necessarily requires skill in asking witnesses the right questions. Thus, my vocation has opened up another important avocation for me in the arena of onstage interviewing of public figures and best-selling authors at major forums. Most of my interviews since March 2019 can be found on my podcast series “Cross-Examining History”, and they can be accessed by clicking on this link, and found on Spotify, iTunes, and SoundCloud. You can see my interview with former Secretary of State James A. Baker III at the George W. Bush Presidential Library by clicking on this link; and what leading figures have said about my onstage interviewing by clicking here.

My three main speech topics are...

Lincoln, Churchill, and the Power of Words - a lesson on best practices in communication from the two greatest communicators of the last 200 years.
Lawyers & Presidents: The Tie That Binds—a speech that matches up the Ten Commandments of Presidential Leadership with the legal profession’s disciplinary rules and civility creeds. – For a non-lawyer audience, the title of the speech is “The Ten Commandments of Presidential Leadership”.
A Lesson on Civil Discourse from Harper Lee - a speech that explains why Atticus Finch should still be regarded as the ultimate role model for the legal profession, regardless of the change in his image between To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. For a non-lawyer audience, you can describe the speech as “a speech that explains why Atticus Finch should still be regarded as a hero and role model for all professionals, regardless of the change in his image between To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman.

The final connection between my vocation and my avocations is writing for publication. After I’d been a lawyer for 12 years, I decided to start writing for publication in hopes of putting my work product in front of larger crowds. So for the last 30 years, writing for publication has become an increasingly important part of my leisure time. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough said it best about the nature of the writing process: “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” My four books have received a fair amount of critical acclaim and been about my three favorite areas of history: baseball, law, and American presidents. (Cross-Examining History, 1939, Baseball and the Baby Boomers, and Raising the Bar). Harry S. Truman said it best as to why history will always captivate the human spirit: “The only new thing in the world is the history you don’t know.”

Since 1991, my Op-Ed essays and book reviews in newspapers and magazines have given me the chance to organize and express my thoughts about current events and important books to a large audience. I have found that staying in a steady mode of synthesizing my thoughts and then expressing them on paper in an orderly fashion is a very rewarding exercise. Click Here to view my most recent articles from the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Business Journal, Texas Bar Journal, New York Times and Washington Independent Review of Books.

To close the circle, I’ll cite this observation by William A. Rusher (a lawyer who became the first publisher of The National Review, and a commentator on Good Morning America) that’s been on the wall of my office for many years:

“By far the most useful and generally applicable variant of the species, however, is the lawyer. He is the lubricant of society’s essential machinery, making sure as far as possible that its parts mesh rather than clash. Or, to vary the metaphor, he is a sort of universal interpreter, making the words of one speaker intelligible to another.”
- William A. Rusher

Yes, as a user and appreciator of word power, I do my best to interweave my vocation as a trial and appellate lawyer with my avocations of public speaking, onstage interviewing, and writing for publication, in hopes of being:

“a lubricant of society’s essential machinery…who seeks to make sure its parts mesh rather than clash …”

AND

“a sort of universal interpreter making the words of one speaker intelligible to another.”

Hire Talmage Boston as your Lawyer:

CONTACT NOW

Attorney Biography

Talmage is a partner at Shackelford Law Firm’s Dallas office and handles commercial litigation in both trials and appeals. During his 42-year career, he has successfully represented clients in state and federal court lawsuits and arbitrations involving oil and gas, real estate, banking, intellectual property, partnership disputes. He has successfully tried many jury trials throughout Texas and prevailed in appellate courts across the state including the Texas Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In 2019, Talmage received the prestigious Terry Lee Grantham Memorial Award from the Texas Bar Foundation. This recognition is given annually to the Texas lawyer who is “an accomplished, talented, and dedicated Texas lawyer who is a servant of the profession and a dedicated advocate”.

View on Shackelford.law

Recent Success Stories
Variety of Cases Handled
Practice Areas
Bar Admissions
Education
Distinctions & Affiliations
Board Certifications
Leadership Positions

Talmage Boston of Dallas is the recipient of the 2022 Dan Rugeley Price Memorial Award from the Texas Bar Foundation. The Dan Rugeley Price Memorial Award was established by friends and family and endowed through the Texas Bar Foundation in June 1996. The award is given in memory of Dan Price who practiced law in Austin, Texas, and who passed away in January 1994. View full press release here.
A large national bank recently had a customer who was having a serious problem with the enforceability of its contracts. The bank officer sent that customer to Talmage. He supervised the legal research necessary to verify that the customer’s legal position was solid, and, in fact, it was very solid. He then sent a demand letter to the offender who at first claimed that its legal position had merit. He then filed a lawsuit on behalf of my client, with lots of paper discovery attached which showed the offender that they meant business--but continued to dialog with the offender’s attorney---and succeeded in persuading that lawyer that his client was in the right, under Texas law, and the offender was in the wrong. Talmage reaching a settlement with the offender, under the terms of which, the offender has agreed to stop offending, and also agreed to pay for all of his client’s attorneys’ fees incurred on this matter to date---$35,000.
Talmage prevailed (in a 2-1 victory) in getting the court of appeals to reverse the trial court’s wrongful refusal to enforce an arbitration provision.
Talmage prevailed (in a unanimous opinion) in getting the probate court’s summary judgment affirmed on appeal in dispute among siblings over their father’s estate. The client was wrongfully accused by his siblings of breaching his fiduciary duty as co-trustee of a revocable trust. Talmage succeeded in getting him totally cleared while also prevailing on the case’s key evidentiary rulings.
Represented a major motor vehicle distributorship that was sued for tortious interference with a contractual relationship by an out-of-state distributor competitor. The plaintiff sought damages of several million dollars, and Talmage succeeded in getting the case settled and dismissed in less than six months, under the terms of which the plaintiff received nothing from our client.
Represented a major financial investment advisor who sought to consummate a business divorce in order to disconnect from his troublesome long-time partner. Talmage’s client achieved the desired disconnect result by obtaining a favorable pre-litigation settlement at mediation, thereby avoiding his client’s having to pay what would have been substantial litigation fees.
Represented the financial services division of a major automobile manufacturer against a breach of contract claim asserted by one of its former vendors. Again, Talmage got the case settled favorably and promptly by pursuing a pre-litigation mediation, thereby avoiding his client’s having to pay what would have been significant litigation fees.

Oil & Gas Cases—including disputes over the terms of oil & gas leases, joint operating agreements, drilling contracts, and other contracts involved in the energy business.
Real Estate Cases—including disputes over the proper interpretation of real estate instruments, deficiencies owed after foreclosure, adverse possession, prescriptive easements, trespass to try title, and condemnation.
Intellectual Property Cases—including trademark and patent disputes.
Business Tort Cases—including fraud, tortious interference, and RICO claims.
Family Office Disputes—involving parents and siblings at war with each other.
Probate Cases—involving all aspects of estate administration.
Banking Cases—involving disputes over promissory notes, deeds of trust, personal guaranty agreements, and all other types of loan documents.
Labor & Employment Cases—including disputes over covenants not to compete, and severance compensation.
Receivership Litigation & Claims against Governments—that involve sovereign immunity issues.

Commercial Litigation
Arbitration and Mediation

Texas since 1978
All U.S. District Courts in Texas
United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals

University of Texas:

J.D., 1978
B.A., (Major in Economics, Minor in English) cum laude 1975, Phi Beta Kappa

Talmage Boston of Dallas is the recipient of the 2022 Dan Rugeley Price Memorial Award from the Texas Bar Foundation. The Dan Rugeley Price Memorial Award was established by friends and family and endowed through the Texas Bar Foundation in June 1996. The award is given in memory of Dan Price who practiced law in Austin, Texas, and who passed away in January 1994. View full press release here.
In 2021, the American Lawyer recognized Talmage as one of its Pathfinders for the southern region of the United States.
Named to “Texas Super Lawyer” list, a Thomson Reuters service, for Business Litigation every year since 2003.
Named to “Best Lawyers” in America list, by BL Rankings, for Commercial Litigation, Appellate and Litigation-Banking and Finance every year since 2013.
He is the only lawyer to have received Presidential Citations from eight different State Bar of Texas Presidents for outstanding service to the State Bar: in 2005-2011, and 2018.
In 2019, he received the prestigious Terry Lee Grantham Memorial Award from the Texas Bar Foundation.

Talmage has been Board Certified in Civil Trial Law since 1988 and Civil Appellate Law since 1990 by Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Talmage previously served as the Chairman of the State Bar of Texas’ Litigation Section, Chairman of the State Bar of Texas’ Council of Chairs, Chairman of the State Bar of Texas’ Annual Meeting Committee, and Chairman of the Dallas Bar Association’s Business Litigation Section.
He served as a director of the State Bar of Texas from 2009 - 2011.
In the year ended 2021, Talmage completed his term as Chairman of the Dallas Bar Foundation.
He was recently named to become a new board member of the Texas Bar Foundation for a three year term.