Sam Passman grew up in Galveston, Texas.  He attended and received his bachelor and law degrees from the University of Texas.  During World War II, Sam served his country as a Major in the United States Army Air Corp. and afterward he returned to Dallas, Texas to practice law.  He joined a law firm named Alexander, George, Thuss & Passman, which later hired his future longtime law partner, Shannon Jones, Jr., as a law clerk in 1949.  Together, Sam and Shannon founded the law firm of Passman & Jones in 1952.

Sam was a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the Dallas Bar Association and until his passing in 2009, was the longest licensed attorney recognized by the Dallas Bar Association.  He was highly regarded as a civil trial and family law attorney in his seven decades of law practice.  Sam’s law career spanned generations of families and he played a vital role in counseling many business leaders in the apparel and other growing industries during Dallas’ strongest growth years. 

Shannon Jones Jr. grew up in Kaufman, Texas, the place where he first heard, loved, and learned to play and sing Country and Western music.  Upon his honorable discharge from the service in World War II, Shannon returned to Texas, obtaining an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and law degree from Southern Methodist University.  In 1950, he began practicing law in Dallas with the law firm of Alexander, George, Thuss & Passman.  On January 1, 1952, Shannon founded Passman & Jones with Sam Passman.

Shannon’s law career spanned more than fifty years in the practice of civil law and in his later years was concentrated primarily in the fields of wills and estates and entertainment law. He played a vital role in counseling many business leaders, entertainment performers and leaders in the entertainment industry, including “ghostwriting” for many artists primarily in the Country and Western field, such as Bob Wills and other successful songwriters.  Shannon was also a champion of artist’s copyrights and fair compensation for their works.  He was a pioneer in the industry who wrote many of the first statutes, including those in Texas protecting the names, persona, likenesses and creative works of artists like Buddy Holly long after their careers had ended.  Shannon also founded the first Entertainment Law and Study Group at the Dallas Bar Association, which was the first such group in any Texas bar association.