We’ve got a good thing going and look forward to what’s coming next. We’re actively recruiting ambitious, ownership-minded attorneys looking for a better way to practice and who are excited to see how we can help them enjoy a more integrated and pleasant way to work. We’ll remain true to our Why – to cultivate a non-traditional, entrepreneurial law firm by which we create and maintain fulfilling and sustainable lives for our team, our clients, and our community.

We’ll also keep emphasizing our practical and business-oriented approach to what other lawyers see as only legal problems and be on the lookout for forward-thinking clients who appreciate the value we offer. And we’ll continue to take proactive and supportive care of the businesses and individuals who’ve come to trust us over the past decade and a half.

Todd published his first book, THE 95% RULE: 29 Employment Law Axioms For Owners, Execs, and HR, in September and it quickly reached Amazon Bestseller status.  We also launched our fractional general counsel product, Embedded Counsel, giving our clients yet another way to access our practical and no-nonsense advice.

Our dog count increased, too.  Gabi brought home Marvin’s half-sister, Bella.  Luli, Tyler’s personable but peculiar mutt livens up the office and Jade’s wirery mixed-breed Theo makes sure no tennis ball or toy makes it out alive. 

We enjoyed progress on the administrative front, too.  Liza Levy came on board in the Spring to ease Beth’s billing load and has absorbed every new task we’ve thrown at her as Legal Billing Clerk and Lindsay Mass assumed the Office Administrator responsibilities, as well as direct executive assistant support for several lawyers.  With a clean bill of health, Gabi took over the Integrator role and was immediately recognized as the new boss.  William continues to serve the Firm in a special advisor role, helping trouble shoot and facilitating our quarterly and annual EOS meetings.

Todd launched Stanton Solutions, a bespoke executive coaching practice designed to help leaders see issues differently, open their thinking to new ideas, and enjoy more of the agency and flexibility afforded them by their positions.

2025 proved pivotal. We first added Tyler Henderson and Wylly Killorin as a Partner and Associate, respectively, bringing their successful complex asset recovery and litigation practices under our umbrella.  Next came Luke Andrews, one of Sam’s former Jones Day buds, to bolster our litigation bona fides.  He was followed in the late Summer by Ashely Futrell-Hinkson, then by Jim Standard just a few weeks later. Ashley will fill some litigation gaps as she aspires to build a solid client base and develop her employment law counseling skills.  Jim will focus on his corporate and contracts practice.  We parted ways with Rob, but Jade happily passed the Bar and rounded out our 17-lawyer roster…as high a count as we’ve ever had.

As we tinkered with workflow models and other efforts at efficiency, Joe, Elijah, Faz, and Najmah departed. Maxine progressed through her 3L year, graduated, and joined as an Associate in the Fall. Jade McFarlane-Rowtham assumed the Clerk role and expectations are high. As Gabi and Anna and Liz bravely faced down personal challenges, we successfully onboarded our old friend Shay Zeemer out of her mid-career retirement. We waived goodbye to David in October, Mary turned in her resignation in November, and most regrettably, Evan decided to give big firm life a try.  Paige decided to answer her calling for service and head back to school as the calendar turned. 

Our ops team, though, picked up new talent with Mychel Morrison and Stacey-Ann Gordon, both of whom were nice enough to spend their holidays in orientation…  We ended the year with 12 lawyers and 6 support staff.

Even with this extraordinary traffic in and out of the Firm, we killed it, enjoying our best year ever.  Revenues increased 33% to break the $4,000,000 ceiling and our margin doubled.  It proved to be our most profitable year ever.  And not by a little bit.

We pushed deeper into Traction and shored up our operations and business practices, providing a better foundation from which our team can service our growing client roster.  Growth and improvement spurred us to try to upgrade to a new practice management system, but the experiment with fractional CTO group proved more of a roadblock than an information superhighway.  Chalk that one up to a learning experience.  Todd’s membership in Collective 54, though, opened his eyes to the threat of the founder’s bottleneck.

2024 started in the right direction and we marched toward ambitious goals. Samantha Mandell came aboard in January (bringing with her Heather Ard to provide more admin and paralegal support) to raise our headcount to 17 lawyers, a clerk, and 5 administrative staff.  Oh, and Sam brought Marvin, a precocious and lively Aussiedoodle puppy, to serve as Sadie’s mentee.

Growth remained the priority, both in terms of headcount and revenue.  We added corporate and transactional Partner John Arbogast (with Rachel Vanderpol’s able recruiting assistance).  Vanderpol also helped us land Associate Rob Wheeler to support Joe and Elijah in their litigation practices. Najmah James took a big leap of faith accepted an Associate position.  We experimented (mostly successfully…) with an innovative new salary model for Associates. Mary Popplewell invigorated the operations team and made the office as warm as it’s ever been. Together, we hit our 2023 revenue goal of $3,000,000. 

Amazing stuff started happening almost immediately in 2023.  Elijah and Heather moved into Partnership roles, and we convinced Gabi to come on full-time, too.  As Faz graduated and moved into an Associate position, we signed up Carter Augustine as our new 2L clerk.  After 8 great years, Alex moved back to his former firm, and we filled his litigation shoes with Joe Gleason, another Bulldog from the class of ’02. Sadie, Todd’s new Australian Shepherd puppy, uh, livened up the office.

The sluggishness from early in 2022 turned around and we realized nearly 15% growth to exceed our goal of $2.5M in revenue.  Our brightening outlook led us to engage attorney Gabi Moses to help fill the gap left as Christine transitioned to an in-house role.  Sam graduated and is moving to a fulltime corporate position and sadly, we said goodbye to Hattie, the awesome dog who started it all with us.

Operationally, our newly formed Leadership Committee pushed forward to implement Traction and its Entrepreneurial Operating System to lend more efficiency to our practice.  We finally expanded into additional office space in our building, increasing our footprint to over 4,000 sq.ft. and filling up both suites at 410 Plasters.  Evan became an Associate after his positive bar exam results. Liz, celebrating her 10^th Anniversary with Stanton Law, proved indispensable as a Managing Partner and continues to take on increasing responsibility.

Paul Knowlton founded a new service area, The Toolbox: Life & Career Crossroads, which acts as a balance to provide order for business leaders across their personal and professional lives.

Demonstrating our commitment to the entrepreneur and small businesses, Stanton Law became a Community Partner with Atlanta Tech Village, holding regular programs and office hours to help fast-growth companies get going in the right direction. Our network and our message continued to grow.

Our 2022 proved the only constant is change. Josh and Emily decided to explore what we (and they) hope will be greener pastures.  We were excited to welcome new attorneys as Evan graduated and took the Bar and we hired on Heather Broadwater, who brings more than three decades of combined HR and employment law experience.  We also successfully onboarded Maxine Lawson into her position as our 2L Clerk.  Amy relocated to Kentucky.  We recognized our Counsel are more appropriately designated as Partners.

Demonstrating our commitment to the entrepreneur and small business, Stanton Law commenced as a Community Partner with Atlanta Tech Village, holding regular programs and office hours to help fast growth companies get going in the right direction. Our network and our message continued to grow.

The investments we made in our attorneys and staff paid off.  Final year-end books showed 20% revenue growth in 2021 will come in right at $2.2M.  We settled in at 13 attorneys, 2 clerks, and 3 staff.

We re-upped on our lease at 410 Plaster Ave and successfully renovated and improved our workspace.  We improved our technology offerings, especially for those who’ve found it more efficient to work from home at times.  We also onboarded our long-time friend-of-the-Firm, William Fadul, as a Special Advisor to tackle strategic initiatives and welcomed Sam Postage to help Beth with accounting and finance.

Capitalizing on our partnership with Peachtree VA, our assistants, Erica McNicoll, Melissa Park, and Paige Gianfortune made everyone’s lives better and more focused.

With the addition of new marketing partner See Spark Go our PR efforts hit a higher gear.  Interview opportunities, radio spots, and speaking engagements are arising out of their social media campaigns, and their intentional, coordinated, and consistent communications strategy, and the resulting higher profile have started paying dividends.  The new website launched just in time to celebrate our 10^th Anniversary, along with a special week of LinkedIn activity and a unique podcast.

2021 was eventful and exciting.  We onboarded Paul Knowlton as Counsel with high hopes for his IP, business-estate, and asset protection offering.  We also engaged Maria King to service clients’ day-to-day HR needs, and landed another great young Associate, Elijah Davis, from his big firm languishing.  Counsel Quinton Johnson joined in mid-April, supplementing a very busy transactional group. Anna Grant, an experienced ERISA specialist, joined in June and will be a critical asset for our clients – many of whom have simply not had access to this niche, but very important practice area. 

Although Sally took a more traditional summer position to see how the other half lives and Fanny will be joining a big-law shop for her full-time position after her exams, we successfully recruited two new clerks, Evan Alberhasky (GSU 3L) and Fazeleh Yahyaei-Moayyed (GSU 2L), and both killed it.  We bid farewell to Dani, who looked to a larger firm environment as she keeps building her practice, but our Counsel and Associate recruiting efforts are continuing.

Liz returned from maternity leave mid-Summer to join Dani as a co-Managing Attorney, improving our efficiency and getting work into the most capable hands to complete.  Melissa took an inhouse position, and we were also disappointed to see Manori leave for what she thinks will be greener pastures.  Mat also transitioned to his next opportunity, but David Adams, Alex’s and Todd’s law school classmate came on board in September.  His transaction, regulatory, and loan servicing practice immediately blossomed, bringing in several new clients and offering the Firm’s existing clients a unique and diverse service set.  The Firm steadied at 10 lawyers, 2 clerks, and 3 administrators, and even among the tumult and turnover, held serve with a healthy and respectable $1.8M in revenue.

And as other law firms recoiled from the challenge and immediately began cutting attorney and staff pay, we stepped up our recruiting efforts.  Dani Berry joined mid-pandemic and was immediately invaluable as she developed a new Managing Attorney role for the Firm.  Josh Joel took the leap from his big-law gig, trusting his litigation skills and inclination for rainmaking will provide a new level of independence.  Emily progressed into an Associate position after graduation, and we were pleased to welcome Sally Nicholas and Fanny Chac as new law clerks.

As Covid erupted and 2020 devolved into employment-law chaos, Stanton Law leaned in.  While handling an unprecedented volume of work as new laws came on the books and companies grasped for answers, our attorneys churned out volumes of policy guidance for clients and quickly put together several informative webinars, reaching and helping thousands.

Things continued cooking through 2019.  Revenues grew another 20% annually, putting us just over $1.8M for the year. While we said goodbye to Jessica and Lauren (who came upon more traditional opportunities too good to pass up), we kept adding timekeepers, welcoming GSU 3L Emily Gaston and GSU 2L Maggie Garrett on board as 2019-20 clerks and giving us a pipeline of rising associate talent.  Mat joined as an Associate as soon as his Bar results came in.

Stanton Law matured. After a diligent search, we added Jamey Rasnick as our Operations Director.  She, along with Beth and Lynda, assumed responsible for all things non-legal in the office lending structure, policies, and procedures to the attorneys, and allowing Todd to focus other aspects of Firm growth – namely deepening relationships with existing clients, securing new engagements, and finding other Of Counsel candidates to enjoy the ride.

We were tapped among the Bulldog 100 in 2016-19 as one of the 100 fastest growing companies owned by UGA alumni. This added to the awards list that already included mentions in the Law Firm 500 in 2017 and 2018, recognizing Stanton Law as one of the 500 fastest growing law firms in the country.

2018 continued the upward trend.  The addition of Lauren Marlow and Erika Pitzel in April expanded the Firm’s service offerings to include a transactional practice, tax direction, and business-oriented trusts, estates, and succession-planning work.  Lynda Fink  assumed the Office Administrator role, and we welcomed Mat Toomey as our 2018-19 law clerk.  We finished with just under $1,500,000 in collections for the year.  Unique marketing initiatives, such as the Busy In-House Counsel avatar and In-House Commiseration Mixers presented with Bondurant Mixon & Elmore and Latitude Legal, raised the Firm’s profile among larger companies, and Stanton Law attorneys continued to be sought after speakers for various events.

Growth was also on the agenda in 2017.  Stanton Law brought in Jessica Winnans to start developing her IP practice and successfully merged Melissa Malcom’s south-side solo employment practice into the mix in March.  And as Mallory decided to return to Western climes, the Firm added Beth McCormack as its Controller, while Heather Obelgoner signed on to clerk for the 2017-18 academic year and picked up the bulk of the administrative responsibilities.  Revenues bounced a healthy 17%, approaching $1,200,000 for the year.

Those improvements, however, paid dividends in an explosive 2016.  With the hiring of Todd’s law school classmate Alex Barfield in January, the Firm added a robust litigation offering (and a proven book of business).  Mallory Michael joined as our first Office Administrator a few months later, and Manori de Silva brought her commercial contracts, employment, and international practice onboard in May.  Firm revenues rose nearly 75% and cracked $1,000,000 for the year.

2015 brought big changes.  Emboldened by its new operations consultant, Stephanie Everett, the Firm committed to an aggressive growth strategy, seeing the revenue and profit potential in bringing other top-shelf counsel into its self-directed model.  With Stephanie’s help, Stanton Law leased, designed, and built out its 410 Plasters Avenue office location, providing its attorneys (and their dogs) a comfortable and hip place from which to work and to entertain.  The casual and approachable space mirrored the attitude of the Firm, and the office remains a solid recruiting and business development asset.

Headcount grew.  Amy Thomson, then a 3L at Georgia State Law School, joined as a clerk in late summer 2015, eventually becoming the Firm’s second Associate the following year after passing the Bar.  With a unique opportunity from Newell Brands, Stanton Law was able to recruit long-time friend Melissa Kotun out of her mid-town sweatshop and she joined as Of Counsel.  Christine Green, with her budding employment and ADA Title III practice, joined in November, eventually relocating to the Atlanta office after starting in Birmingham.

Even with the year’s emphasis on operational improvements, Firm collections ticked up about 5% to $585,000.

Growth accelerated over the next two years with revenues jumping to $415,000 in 2013, then again to nearly $560,000 in 2014.  The increase was largely attributable to the addition of two new attorneys, Clancy Mendoza (an ERISA practitioner), and Carrie Young (a former in-house counsel with a Firm client, specializing in commercial contracts and governance).  Again, both Clancy and Carrie were attracted to the flexibility of a practice within Stanton Law.

A fishbowl in a contemporary work share office in Virginia-Highland gave Todd and Liz the venue for increased collaboration. Revenues in 2012 were just shy of $300,000.

In Fall 2012, after taking on a particularly large case, the Firm brought on its first associate.  Intrigued by Todd’s emphasis on business development, client-facing opportunities, and flexible work arrangement, Elizabeth Leyda (now Sigler) signed on and began assuming increasing responsibility for handbook, policy, and employment agreement drafting, as well as sitting in on Todd’s counseling appointments with his growing list of clients and frequent training programs.  Stanton Law paid Liz an hourly rate, as opposed to the more customary salary compensation earned at other firms and was therefore able to offer Liz a level of autonomy and work/life balance not enjoyed by her peers at larger firms.  The Firm secured its first small office space in December 2012 (a fishbowl in a contemporary work share office in Virginia-Highland) to allow Todd and Liz the venue for increased collaboration.  Revenues in 2012 were just shy of $300,000.

Todd Stanton founded Stanton Law LLC in November 2011, seeking to build a nimble solo legal practice to meet the needs of small- and medium-sized businesses and their hard-working owners and entrepreneurs who put it all on the line.  Todd provided responsive and practically-minded policy development, counseling and consultation, litigation avoidance strategies, and dispute resolution services.  His wife Ashley provided accounting and finance expertise, and Todd, working out of the front room in their house, did the rest.  The market was receptive, and revenues quickly proved Stanton Law was filling a need.