A Houston Family Law Firm Built for Complex Cases

Divorce is rarely just a personal decision. For business owners, physicians, executives with equity compensation, professional athletes, and high-earning professionals, divorce is also a financial, tax, and operational event that can reshape a family’s future for decades. The same is true after the decree is signed child support that no longer fits, custody schedules that no longer work, and orders that the other parent simply isn’t following all require their own legal strategy.

At Anunobi Law, we represent clients across Texas in the cases other firms find too complicated, too contested, or too high-stakes to handle well. Our practice combines family law trial experience with deep business and financial training, which is exactly what high-net-worth divorces and post-decree fights demand.

This page is the gateway to our family law practice. Below, you’ll find an overview of every solution we offer — from divorce itself, to the specialized issues that come with significant assets, to the modification and enforcement work that follows the decree.

Free consultation: 832-538-0833 or 1-855-538-0863

Divorce

Every divorce involves the same legal framework — division of the marital estate, child custody and support if there are children, and spousal maintenance where appropriate — but no two cases unfold the same way. We handle the full range:

1. Contested Divorce — When the parties cannot agree on property, custody, or support, the case must be litigated. Contested divorces require formal discovery, expert valuations, mediation, and often trial. Our firm is built for this work.
2. High Conflict Divorce — Different from a contested divorce. High-conflict cases are driven less by legal disagreements than by personality dynamics — narcissism, manipulation, parental alienation, and abuse. They demand a different playbook, including documentation strategies, careful child-custody planning, and protective orders where appropriate.
3. Common Law Divorce — Texas recognizes informal (common law) marriage, and ending one requires a formal divorce. Disputes often start with whether a common law marriage existed at all.
4. An Uncontested Divorce — is a divorce in which both spouses generally agree on the major issues, including property division, child-related matters, and financial obligations. Because there are no significant disputes to litigate, uncontested divorces are often faster, less expensive, and less adversarial than contested cases. Even when the parties agree, however, the legal documents must still be carefully prepared to ensure the agreement is accurately reflected and enforceable under Texas law..

High Net Worth Divorce

When significant assets are on the table, a divorce stops being a domestic matter and becomes a complex financial case. Valuation disputes, characterization fights (community vs. separate property), tax planning, and discovery of hidden assets all become central. Our firm’s combination of family law and business law experience is built for exactly this work.

Below are examples of the specific high-net-worth divorce situations we handle most often.

Business Owner Divorce

A privately held business is often the largest single asset in a marriage — and the most contested. Issues include:

• Valuation. Was the business correctly valued? Discounts for lack of marketability and minority interest, normalization of owner compensation, and the choice between income, market, and asset approaches can swing the number by millions.
• Characterization. Was the business started before or during the marriage? Has community time, talent, or money been invested into a separate-property business? Jensen and Vallone claims (reimbursement for community contribution to a separate-property business) are routinely litigated.
• Operational continuity. Buy-out structures, earn-outs, non-compete provisions, and continued employment of a non-owner spouse all need to be negotiated carefully.
• Discovery. Forensic accountants are typically needed to trace cash flow, identify personal expenses run through the business, and reconstruct the true economic picture.

Doctor and Dentist Divorce

Physicians and dentists face a distinct set of issues:

• Practice valuation, including goodwill — Texas distinguishes between enterprise goodwill (divisible) and personal (professional) goodwill (not divisible). Where the practice’s value lies is often the central fight.
• Buy-sell agreements that may control or restrict transfer.
• Deferred compensation, accounts receivable, and work-in-progress that must be valued and characterized.
• Spousal maintenance and child support calculations that account for fluctuating practice income, on-call income, and benefits

Divorce Involving RSUs, Stock Options, and Equity Compensation

For executives and tech employees, equity compensation is often the largest non-cash component of the marital estate. Specialized issues include:

• Vested vs. unvested grants. Vested RSUs and exercised options are typically community property if earned during the marriage. Unvested grants are characterized using time-based formulas (the Hug and Nelson formulas, or Texas’s own approaches).
• RSUs awarded for past performance vs. future retention. The character analysis differs.
• Tax treatment at division. Transferring RSUs or stock options between spouses creates real tax consequences that have to be modeled, not ignored.
• Section 83(b) elections, ISO vs. NSO treatment, and AQDRO-style transfer mechanics.
• Privately held company equity (pre-IPO startups) raises additional valuation problems and often requires expert testimony.

Athlete Divorce

Professional athletes face issues no other client category does:

• Short, intense earning windows that distort lifetime support calculations.
• Signing bonuses, deferred compensation, and image rights with complex characterization questions.
• Endorsement contracts as ongoing income streams.
• NIL income for collegiate athletes and the increasingly murky line between amateur and professional earnings.
• Privacy and reputational concerns that often drive a preference for confidential settlement and mediation over public trial.

Executive and C-Suite Divorce

Senior executives often have compensation packages that look simple in summary and turn out to be anything but on examination:

• Performance share units (PSUs), restricted stock, and deferred compensation plans.
• Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (SERPs) and non-qualified deferred compensation.
• Bonus structures with multi-year vesting and clawback provisions.
• Carried interest for partners in private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital.
• Key man insurance and corporate benefits that may be reachable.

Real Estate-Heavy Divorce

Where the estate is concentrated in real property — investment portfolios, ranches, multi-family holdings — appraisal disputes, debt allocation, and 1031-exchange tax issues take center stage. Income-producing properties also create characterization questions about rents earned during marriage on separate-property real estate.

Inheritance, Trusts, and Family Wealth

Inherited assets are typically separate property, but only if traced and segregated correctly. Common issues:

• Commingling of inherited funds with community accounts.
• Trust distributions during the marriage and whether they are characterized as separate property or as community income.
• Beneficiary interests in family trusts and limited partnerships.
• Reimbursement claims between separate and community estates.

Hidden Assets and Forensic Discovery

When one spouse controls the books, the other often suspects the disclosed estate isn’t the whole picture. We work with forensic accountants and financial investigators to identify undisclosed accounts, cryptocurrency holdings, offshore assets, undervalued business interests, and income diverted through related entities.

Modification of Divorce Decree and Family Court Orders

Life doesn’t stop when the decree is signed. Income changes. Children grow. Schedules collapse. A modification action is the formal legal process for changing an existing court order — and Texas law sets specific standards for when modifications are available.

The general standard is that the moving party must show a material and substantial change in circumstances of the child, a parent, or a party affected by the order, since the order was rendered. Specific orders have specific rules.

Modification of Child Support Orders

Child support can be modified when:

• A material and substantial change has occurred in the circumstances of a child or a person affected by the order, or
• It has been three years since the order was set, and the monthly amount calculated under the current guidelines would differ by either 20% or $100 from the existing order.

Common triggers include job loss or a new job, a significant raise (especially with a high-earning obligor), changes in the children’s needs (medical, educational), and changes in custody arrangements. Self-employment income, bonus income, and equity compensation income all create their own analytical problems and frequently require detailed financial discovery.

Modification of Conservatorship

Modifying who is named primary conservator (or, more commonly, who holds the right to designate the child’s primary residence) is one of the more difficult modifications under Texas law. The standards include showing material and substantial change, that the modification is in the child’s best interest, and depending on timing, additional thresholds:

• If filed within one year of the prior order, an affidavit must be attached alleging specific facts about the child’s environment.
• A child 12 or older may confer with the judge regarding their wishes.

We handle modifications driven by relocation, parental fitness concerns, school and medical needs, and changes in the parents’ work schedules.

Modification of Possession and Access Orders

Possession schedules — when each parent has the children — are modified more frequently than people realize. The standard possession order works for many families, but not all. Modifications often arise around:

• A parent’s relocation within or outside Texas.
• Changes in work schedule (shift work, deployment, residency).
• The children’s evolving school and extracurricular needs.
• Stepfamily and sibling considerations.
• Special needs that require accommodation.

Modification of Spousal Maintenance

Court-ordered spousal maintenance can be modified on a showing of material and substantial change in either party’s circumstances. Contractual alimony, by contrast, generally cannot — which is why how support is structured at the time of divorce matters enormously.

Enforcement of Family Court Orders

A court order is only as good as its enforcement. When the other party isn’t following the decree, the law gives you tools — but they have to be deployed correctly, with the right documentation and the right pleading.

Enforcement of Child Support

When child support isn’t paid, available remedies include:

• Wage withholding through the Office of the Attorney General or by court order.
• Contempt — Texas treats nonpayment of child support as contempt of court, with civil and criminal contempt available. Penalties include jail time of up to 180 days per violation, fines, and attorney’s fees.
• Liens on real estate, financial accounts, and other property.
• License suspension — drivers’ licenses, professional licenses, and recreational licenses can be suspended for nonpayment.
• Tax refund interception, passport denial, and credit reporting.
• Judgments for arrearages and interest.

Enforcement actions require precision. The motion must list each violation specifically — date, amount due, amount paid, amount owed — and the order being enforced must be unambiguous on its face. Sloppy enforcement pleadings get dismissed.

Enforcement of Possession and Access Orders

When the other parent withholds the children, refuses to surrender them at exchange times, or otherwise violates the possession schedule, remedies include:

• Contempt, with the same civil and criminal exposure as child support enforcement.
• Make-up time ordered by the court.
• Attorney’s fees awarded to the wronged parent.
• Modification triggered by repeated violations, including potentially changing primary conservatorship.
• Habeas corpus in cases of unlawful retention of a child.

We handle both bringing enforcement actions and defending against them — and the defense is often as nuanced as the prosecution, particularly where the underlying order is ambiguous or where good-faith compliance is in dispute.

Enforcement of Property Division

Decrees frequently order the transfer or sale of property, the refinance of debt, the division of retirement accounts (via QDRO), or the payment of equalizing money. Failures to comply are enforceable through contempt for affirmative acts, money judgments, and clarifying or enforcement orders. Deadlines matter a failure to enforce a property division within statutory limits can extinguish the right.

Interstate and International Family Law Matters

When parents live in different states—or different countries—or when one parent relocates after a Texas decree, jurisdiction becomes a threshold strategic issue that often dictates the outcome. The governing frameworks include the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, and, in international cases, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Interstate and International Child Support (UIFSA)

UIFSA governs which state (or country, in certain cases) has continuing exclusive jurisdiction (CEJ) over child support. Key considerations include:

• Where modifications can be filed and when jurisdiction shifts
• Registration and enforcement of out-of-state (and some foreign) support orders
• Limits on multiple competing support orders (one controlling order rule)
• Direct income withholding across state lines
• Recognition of certain foreign support orders under UIFSA (as amended)

Interstate Custody and Visitation (UCCJEA)

The UCCJEA governs jurisdiction over custody determinations and enforcement:

• Home state jurisdiction (typically where the child lived for the last six months)
• Exclusive, continuing jurisdiction once a state makes an initial determination
• Emergency jurisdiction in cases involving abandonment or abuse
• Inconvenient forum / forum non conveniens analysis
• Simultaneous proceedings and judicial communication between states
• Registration and expedited enforcement of out-of-state custody orders

International Child Abduction (Hague Convention)

When a child is wrongfully removed to or retained in another country, the Hague Convention provides a return mechanism, not a custody determination:

• Focus is on habitual residence, not “best interest of the child”
• Proceedings are designed to be expedited
• Limited defenses (e.g., grave risk of harm, consent/acquiescence)
• Applies only between signatory countries
• U.S. implementing statute: International Child Abduction Remedies Act
• Parallel UCCJEA analysis may still be required domestically

Interstate Divorce and Property Jurisdiction

Divorce across state lines introduces layered jurisdictional issues:

• Subject-matter jurisdiction (residency requirements for filing)
• Personal jurisdiction over the out-of-state spouse (critical for property division and support)
• Divisible divorce doctrine (a court may grant divorce but lack jurisdiction over property or support)
• Coordination of community vs. separate property regimes across states
• Enforcement of property awards in other jurisdictions

Enforcement and Strategic Considerations

• Early filings can lock in favorable jurisdiction under UCCJEA/UIFSA
• Delay can result in loss of home-state priority or jurisdictional advantage
• Parallel proceedings create risk of conflicting orders if not managed properly
• Registration of foreign or out-of-state orders is often a prerequisite to enforcement
• Emergency relief must be carefully structured to avoid jurisdictional overreach

Jurisdiction is not procedural—it is outcome determinative. Getting it right at the outset is significantly less costly than litigating jurisdictional defects after the fact, particularly in cases involving relocation or international movement of children.

Other Family Law Solutions

• Amicus Attorney Services — Court-appointed work assisting the judge in determining the best interest of the child in contested custody cases.
• Mediation Services — Mediation is mandatory in most contested family law cases in Texas before a final trial. We provide both representation in mediation and mediation services for other parties in family law and business litigation matters.
• Protective Orders — Filing and defending protective orders in family violence cases. These have immediate consequences for custody, possession, firearms rights, and housing.
• Name Change — Adult and minor name change proceedings.

Why Anunobi Law

Family law is full of generalists. High-net-worth divorces and complex post-decree fights demand more than that. What our clients get:

• Board-certified family law experience. Attorney Anunobi is board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — a credential held by a small fraction of Texas family lawyers.
• A combined business-law and family-law practice. Business valuation, contract interpretation, and equity compensation issues are core competencies of our firm, not concepts we have to outsource.
• Trial readiness. Most cases settle. Settlement values reflect the credibility of the trial alternative, which means a firm willing and able to try the case secures better outcomes even when no trial happens.
• A strategic, financially literate approach. We prepare cases the way a sophisticated business client would expect: with budgets, models, scenarios, and clear decisions.

Read more about our attorneys, including Chidi D. Anunobi and Okezie Chukwumerije, or our firm’s approach.

Areas We Serve

AnunobiLaw serves clients in counties throughout Texas, with a primary practice in Harris County, Fort Bend County, Montgomery County, Brazoria County, and Galveston County.Key cities we serve include: Houston, The Heights, River Oaks, Missouri City, Sugar Land, Stafford, Richmond, Pearland, Cypress, Conroe, The Woodlands, Spring, Tomball, Rosharon, Pasadena, Bay Town, League City, and Katy.

Contact Us

We offer complimentary 10-minute conversation to determine whether we are the right fit to work together. Call or message us to discuss your situation in confidence.

Phone: 832-538-0833 | 1-855-538-0863
Email: contact@businessandfamilylawyers.com
Office: 1415 North Loop West, Ste. 1140, Houston, TX 77008

Contact us today

Related Resources

• Family Law Resources
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Divorce Minute Series
• Divorce Deep Dive Series
• Wealth In The Balance Podcast
• Articles & Blogs

Other Practice Areas

• Business Law Solutions
• Medical Law Solutions