Kristi Motley

Kristi Motley is a co-founding partner of Nace Motley in Dallas, Texas. She advises clients on business formation, contracts, corporate governance, confidentiality agreements, non-competes, and ownership structure — helping business owners build relationships and agreements that hold up under pressure, not just on paper. That means evaluating a contract or a partnership not only for how it operates today, but for how it would perform if the relationship broke down, a key interest came under threat, or litigation became unavoidable.

When disputes do arise, Ms. Motley represents clients in partnership disputes, membership disputes, shareholder disputes, and business breakups involving closely held companies. Her practice covers fiduciary duty claims, governance disputes, and valuation issues, along with intellectual-property litigation and disputes involving trade secrets, confidential information, and technology-related agreements. She helps clients to understand the legal and business risk in front of them, then builds a strategy suited to the actual dispute — whether that means negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or trial.

Ms. Motley also brings that commercial litigation background to family-law matters where business ownership is part of the case. When a marriage involves a business, a trust, or disputed separate property, the case often requires more than a standard family-law analysis. It calls for tracing, valuation, and a clear understanding of how ownership and control actually function inside a company.

Her early career gave her a rigorous foundation in complex commercial litigation. As a litigation associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, she worked on complex business and commercial litigation, international litigation and arbitration, and intellectual-property litigation. As a senior associate at Bickel & Brewer, she represented hedge funds, investment groups, officers and directors, and hotel ownership and management companies in shareholder and partnership disputes, officer and director liability claims, securities fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty matters.

Ms. Motley earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law and her B.A. from Baylor University. She is admitted to the State Bar of Texas, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Ms. Motley has a longstanding record of civic leadership in Dallas. She served as Director of Bickel & Brewer Storefront, the firm's pro bono arm, managing attorney caseloads for matters of both local and national significance. From 1998 to 2001, she served on the Board of the American Civil Liberties Union, including terms as Vice President, Chair of the Legal Committee, and Chair of the Intake Committee. She has also been a longtime member of the Dallas Museum of Art, serving as a Junior Associate and later as a Forum Member.