I was born in Dallas, but spent the bulk of my adolescent years in Evergreen, Colorado.  I returned to the Dallas area in the 11th grade and graduated from Plano Senior High School in 1984, located in Plano, Texas.  From there I attended Richland College and the University of North Texas where I received a degree in Business Administration.

From there I enrolled in the Texas Tech School of Law and graduated in 1992, receiving my law degree.

I immediately began my divorce practice primarily in the Dallas Family Law Courts, but started with cases in Tarrant County and Collin County as well. However, my very first divorce trial was in Ellis County and it was a doozy.  To say I got “home towned” is an understatement.  I was fresh out of law school, green, and flying by the seat of my pants!  I think every trial or litigation lawyer remembers their first trial.  Oh the good times.

Since that time I have dedicated my practice to handling divorces, child custody cases, paternity actions, termination and adoptions, you name it.  If it is related to Family Law I have done it.   I primarily handle cases around the Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth and Plano (or Collin County) area.  However, I have been known to take cases in Kaufman and Rockwall County occasionally.  If you want to check my body of work you can see that in Dallas County alone I have handled probably close to 500 cases.  Select “All District Family Court” from the drop down menu, click “Family Case Records”, search by “Attorney”, and enter my first and last name Chris Schmiedeke.  As you can see, the records are limited to 200 records and only go up to 2001. All told, for all counties, I have handled in the neighborhood of a thousand cases.  What does that mean?  It means I am old and I have seen just about everything.

I have many other interests than the practice of law, however.  I am an avid cyclist and raced Mountain and Road Bikes for many years.  Once I had kids, I did not have time to train to be competitive so I had to find another source of exercise that carried that same intensity for a shorter period of time.  That is when I discovered Crossfit.  To explain Crossfit here would take too much time, but if it was something you are interested in you can Google “Crossfit” and your city.  My gym is Crossfit Deep Ellum, but there is another Crossfit gym in Dallas near SMU, one in Plano, Allen, Farmers Branch, Grapevine.  If you like working out I encourage you to check out these gyms or any other Crossfit gym.

My other interests are coaching my two daughters soccer teams in the Lake Highlands Soccer Association, photography and videography.  Most of the photos on this site were taken by me and I will soon begin posting instructional divorce and family law videos on the site.