Marisela Rangel

“Whitworth Cigarroa was founded on the tradition of integrity, heart, faith, practicality, thoroughness and ingenuity. I am blessed to represent individuals, small businesses and companies across Texas, the United States and internationally from our home base of Laredo, Texas, the number one inland port in the United States. Together with my law partners and our decades of experience, we guide our clients in all facets of transactional and litigation matters.”

Miss Rangel focuses on helping individuals and families to prepare for the unexpected matters in life, to protect, preserve and determine their property interests, to open, maintain and build their businesses and to facilitate and ease the responsibility when a loved one passes away. Miss Rangel provides legal services in the following areas: wills, trusts, guardianships and estate planning, probate matters, including will admittance, independent and dependent administrations, small estates affidavits, heirship proceedings and will and administration contests, real estate transactions, title examination (surface and mineral) and property rights, business entity organization,  management and maintenance, business transactions and contracts, and oil and gas transactions. Miss Rangel also handles litigation in collaboration with her law partners.

Diverse Experience

Wills, Probate, Trusts, Guardianships & Estate Planning:

Miss Rangel has over 20 years of legal experience in handling estate related matters, including from resolving complex and sensitive family probate disputes and divisions of estates worth over millions of dollars to helping families mitigate their expenses to preserve their family’s hard-earned assets.

Miss Rangel’s practice includes filing applications for a court to admit a will to probate under independent and dependent administrations, including the issuance of letters testamentary, applications for court created independent and dependent administrations including issues of letters of administration, heirship proceedings and determinations, small estate affidavits, affidavits of heirship and other probate proceedings. Miss Rangel will assist clients from the establishment of the estate to the transfer of all assets, including the preparation of deeds and  conveyances, transfer documentation for business interests, stocks and other  transfers, title transfers and other necessary documents and instruments to change title or ownership.

Whether the probate matter is simple or complex, Miss Rangel has always worked to ensure that in a family’s most difficult time, they know that all elements of the process are covered and completed with diligence and care as if the clients were her own personal family.

Miss Rangel’s practice also includes the drafting and preparation of wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, directives to physicians, deeds, gift deeds, transfers of ownership and other key directives, family trusts, mineral trusts, guardianships and estate preparation and planning documents for handling one’s assets during life and after death.

Business Organizations

Miss Rangel has helped clients organize new and maintain businesses in her 20 years that are becoming leaders in their industries in Laredo, Texas and their respective communities, in Texas, the United States and internationally, from 18-wheeler truck repair service centers, ranchers, mineral and surface family businesses, customs brokers, medical professionals, trade craftsmen and various for profit and nonprofits entities.

Miss Rangel’s business organization practice takes a client from the establishment process, management guidance to overall maintenance of an entity, including consulting with clients and their certified public accountants or financial advisers to determine the best entity type for their business plans, including limited liability companies, partnerships, corporations, professional limited liability companies, professional associations, non-profits or other professional or family entities, drafting and filing of certificates of formation and organizational documents, including company agreements, partnership agreements and by-laws, as applicable to the type of entity formed, preparing ownership transfer instruments, including gifts or sales documents, drafting and filing of amendment instruments and preparing minutes of meetings, resolutions and if necessary, dissolution and termination documents for businesses. 

Real Estate, Property Rights and Title Examination

Over the past 20 years, Miss Rangel has worked with clients in the purchase and sale of real estate, including the purchase and sale of homes, ranches, investment and commercial property, including improvements, from the preparation of the earnest money contract and/or sale and purchase contract, the title examination, review of the title commitment and preparation of objection letters, consultation with the title company, the preparation and completion of all applicable sales/purchase instruments, including affidavits, releases of liens, deeds and transfers or contracts for deeds, loan documents, promissory notes, deeds of trust, bills of sale and other applicable instruments to the closing of a sale and transaction.

Miss Rangel’s practice also includes residential, office and commercial property leases, mineral leasing and conveyances, partition deeds and agreements, exchanges and transfers of property, boundary line agreements and other real estate (surface and mineral) related instruments.

Miss Rangel also works to preserve the property rights of owners through property tax or ad valorem tax protests and valuations, agricultural exemptions (1-d-1 exemptions), wildlife management plans and exemptions, hunting and grazing leases, surface use agreements and other leasing and contractual real estate (surface and mineral) transactions.

In addition, Miss Rangel has helped clients and their families determine and preserve their property interests, including surface and mineral interests. She has handled title research for clients holding from hundreds to thousands of surface and mineral acres in one county in Texas to thousands to tens of thousands of surface and mineral acres in multiple counties across Texas, including outside the State of Texas. Title examination can be complex at times, but Miss Rangel works to close title gaps for clients through the preparation of affidavits, affidavits of heirship and other facts, stipulations of interest, conveyances, cross-conveyances, transfers of terminated trusts, and other instruments to resolve title disputes and gaps for surface and mineral interests.

General Background

Marisela Rangel was born and raised in Laredo, Webb County, Texas. In 2011, Marisela became a Rotarian with the Laredo Daybreak Rotary Club and served as its President in 2016-2017, after serving as a Board Member and Officer before her successful tenure as President, attaining the Exemplary Club Award and Presidential Citation for her Presidential year. Laredo Daybreak Rotary’s Club grant project during her year as President was to help in the completion and establishment of the El Cenizo, Texas Public Library, through the purchase and contribution of books, computers and other necessary items to the underserved El Cenizo community south of Laredo, Texas. Marisela continues to be an active Rotarian and presently serves as Service Projects Committee Chair for Laredo Daybreak Rotary Club, along with chairing the subcommittees for Financial Support for Educational Pursuits and Annual Raffle to raise funds for scholarships in Laredo and the surrounding communities.

In addition, Marisela has the distinction of being a Paul Harris Fellow+2 (two sapphires), a recognition for individual contributions or contributions in one’s name of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation, which Rotarian funded Foundation has spent over $4 billion over 100 years advancing world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty around the world.

In 2016, Marisela was nominated and became a Board Member for Casa de Misericordia and in 2020 was named Secretary and serves on the Executive Committee for Casa de Misericordia, which is a vital non-profit shelter for women and children who suffer domestic violence in Laredo, Webb County, Texas, and surrounding communities. Casa de Misericordia serves to empower the women and their children who find themselves in the shelter to overcome their abuse and reclaim their lives by giving them the tools, services, and long-term support to become empowered and independent of their abusers.

In 2019, Marisela gained the high honor and distinction of becoming a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, which is the largest charitably funded bar foundation in the United States. Membership is by invitation only with nominees representing the top 1/3 of 1% of all Texas attorneys each year, with nominations based on outstanding contributions to the legal profession as well as a commitment to the community.

Areas of Practice

• Will, Trusts, Guardianship and Estate Planning
• Probate
• Business Organizations, Management and Maintenance
• Business Transactions and Contracts
• Real Estate and Property Rights
• Title Examination (surface and mineral)
• Oil and Gas Transactions
• Other general transactional and litigation collaboration and support

Bar Admissions

• Texas, 1999

Education

• The University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas
  • J.D. – May 1999
  • Law Journal: Texas Hispanic Journal of Law & Policy, Managing and Administrative Editor, 1998 – 1999
  • Law Journal: Texas Hispanic Journal of Law & Policy, Member, 1997 – 1999
• University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas
  • B.B.A. in Accounting, summa cum laude – December 1995
• J. W. Nixon High School, Laredo, Texas
  • Valedictorian- May 1992

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Texas Bar Foundation, Fellow, 2019-present
• State Bar of Texas, Member, Real Estate, Probate, and Trust Law Section
• State Bar of Texas, Member, Oil and Gas Section
• Laredo Daybreak Rotary Club, Member 2011-Present, Services Projects Chair (2019-present), President (2016-2017), President-Elect (2015-2016),  Vice President (2014-2015), Membership Chair (2013-2014), Board Member (2012-2014)
• Casa de Misericordia, Board Member, 2016-Present;
• Casa de Misericordia, Secretary on Executive Committee, (2020-Present)
• Texas Exes, Life Member
• Laredo-Webb County Bar Association