Tonight’s post on the inside scoop from her first Family Law Conference trip was written by one of our Marietta divorce attorneys, Alyssa Blanchard.
On May 20th all of the attorneys in our firm headed down to Amelia Island for the annual Family Law Conference hosted by the Family Law Section of the GA bar. Every year Mr. Manely takes all of the attorneys while our paralegals and administrative staff hold down the fort.
The attorney’s spend three days learning about the latest case law, statues and gain insight on the perspective of various judges on specifics topics in family law. Working as a paralegal at the firm during college, I can remember the associates coming back and telling stories of the awesome time that they had with their families and some of the interesting points that they learned at the conference. This year, as an attorney I had the privilege of attending.
From 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. we sat in a room with over 600 other attorneys completely immersing ourselves in family law. One speaker noted that we had to be dedicated because we were “in a room with no windows on a beach.” Honestly, until he said that I didn’t even notice that there weren’t any windows. There was so much information being presented that it was hard to notice anything else. Often my coworkers and I would discuss a point presented during the conference and bounce ideas off of one another.
The conference for us was not only a time to immerse ourselves in all things family law, but with six offices in six different locations it was also a time for all the attorneys to get together, kick back and spend time with one another outside of work. For example, David is in our Savannah office. He is our military divorce point person and I go to him when I have a Client and/or Opposing Party in the military for his input. It’s not often that we see David and it was good to catch up with a member of the TMF family. My office is in Marietta so I also don’t get to see Cherese or Brandy whose offices are in Atlanta and Lawrenceville. Jeannine, Mr. Manely (after ten years I still refused to call him Michael) and Naomi are in the Marietta office with me. Mr. Manely splits his time between Marietta and Atlanta.
The highlight of the trip was sitting in the conference and hearing cases discussed that we have already read and even used in our cases. It felt good to know that as a team we stay on top of recent decisions and use them to effectively represent our Clients.
It was a good to know that Mr. Manely constantly received compliments on our legal team. It felt good to hear other attorneys tell me to “continue to watch Michael, he’s a great attorney!”
The family law conference gave us an opportunity to learn, spend time together and it was a pleasant reminder of the strength and quality of our legal team! Go Team TMF!
Alyssa Blanchard