Prater Monning, originally from Amarillo, Texas, is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and the SMU Law School. In law school, he served as an editor of the Southwestern Law Journal, and as Lord Chief Baron of the Order of Barristers. Before entering private practice, he served for one year as law clerk to Hon. James G. Denton of the Texas Supreme Court. In 1977, he joined Wynne & Jaffe (later named Gardere & Wynne) in Dallas, where he remained until the Spring of 1995. At Gardere & Wynne, Prater for several years served as the chair of the firm's Trial Section, at the time the largest litigation section in North Texas.

Prater has tried cases successfully in courts throughout Texas and in several other states, and has continued his successful representation of his clients in the Texas Courts of Appeals, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Supreme Court of Texas, the United States Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States of America. He is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and a Master of the Mack Taylor Inn of the American Inns of Court.

From the inception of his legal career, Prater has devoted a substantial portion of his personal time to improvement of the legal system and to provision of legal services to the poor. He is a Fellow of the Texas and Dallas Bar Foundations, and served on the State Bar of Texas' Ad Hoc Committee for Effective Representation of Death Row Inmates. He was selected as a member of the Dallas Bar Association's Select Committee on Professionalism, and in that capacity shared responsibility for the creation of the "Lawyer's Creed" establishing standards of lawyer conduct that have since been adopted by courts and bar associations across the country. He was also appointed by Hon. Barefoot Sanders to serve on the Advisory Committee to the Northern District of Texas under the Civil Justice Reform Act. The recipient of several pro bono public service awards, Prater has served either as chair or member of several bar association committees and sections, and for many years served as Chair of the Advisory Board to the Dallas Independent School District's Law Magnet High School, and continued to serve through that School's transition to the District's Townview High School. Prater now serves as Vice-Chair of the Texas High School Mock Trial Competition.

In the community, Prater has served as volunteer counsel and/or a benefactor to Happy Hill Farm Children's Home, Children's Medical Center, Boys' Ranch, Lone Star High School Rodeo Association, Girls Inc., Dallas Symphony Orchestra Northeast Texas Symphony League, Dallas Summer Musicals, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Dallas, and Friends of the Farmers' Market. Prater is a member of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas.

Prater lives with his wife and children in Dallas. His daughter as a very young child summed Prater's work as follows: "My Dad helps people decide different things when he goes to work. He's good at it. He wears a suit every day."