My Focus
I am a business lawyer for lawyers.
I like business and entrepreneurship. I like the business of law. I enjoy seeing the different ways attorneys practice law and run their businesses.
Now is an exciting time in the law. The old ways of doing things are not going to be sufficient in the future. Law firms face threats from many sides, but vast opportunities await for those who are willing to explore and try new ideas. Technology allows solos to stand shoulder to shoulder with larger law firms.
My Legal Experience
I have represented and continue to represent law firms of all types. Contingency and hourly. Plaintiff and defense. Personal injury, criminal, family, trust and estate. Startups and long-established firms. True solos and firms with dozens of attorneys and hundreds of employees.
I’ve been a partner at two firms and served as in-house general counsel at my last firm, a business boutique law firm in Atlanta. I’ve hired and fired lawyers and staff, seen lawyers come and go from my firms, and have even been through a law firm dissolution myself. I’ve seen up close the issues that arise from change within a law firm and the effects they can have on a law firm and a lawyer’s practice. While always seeking to resolve disputes as amicably as possible, I have litigated and tried contentious lawyer breakup cases to verdict.
My Approach
I view my job as assisting lawyers and their firms grow. That involves advising firms on what they can and cannot do under the law and ethics rules that currently govern us. And it involves protecting against threats, internal and external.
I bring a practical approach and seek to find solutions that clients can use to pursue their goals. I bring focus to a matter and eliminate redundant and unproductive work that can bog down a matter and unnecessarily add time and cost.
When working on a matter, I am singularly focused on my client’s goals, and every action I takes is intended to move closer towards those goals. My business and engineering background proves invaluable in distilling complex business issues and finding solutions as efficiently as possible.
My Background
I’m a third-generation Georgia Tech engineer and second-generation lawyer. If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be a drummer in a Reggae/Funk band.
I went to law school at the University of Georgia School of Law, where I was the Managing Editor of the Georgia Law Review. Before that I graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Between undergrad and law school, I took some time off and lived in Costa Rica for a few months to learn Spanish, then moved to Colorado to work and learn how to snowboard. After that, I decided it was time to grow up.
I’ve been named as a Top 100 Lawyer in Georgia by SuperLawyers and have an AV Preeminent Peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell. In 2016, I was recognized as one of the Most Influential Attorneys in Georgia.
I’m a regular contributor to the Fulton County Daily Report and my cases have been featured in USA Today, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Law360, Fulton County Daily Report, Yahoo Finance, Atlanta Business Chronicle, and Washington Examiner and on WSBTV, 11Alive, and WABE.
During my career, I’ve served in various capacities in state and federal government:
- Legal Counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the Georgia House of Representatives
- Outside Counsel to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission
- Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, Atlanta Circuit Supervisory Panel Member
- Judicial clerkship with the Honorable John F. Nangle of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Georgia
