Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

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Since 2000, Mr. Meriwether has focused seventy percent (70%) of his practice on family law and thirty percent (30%) on business law. Through time, he has found that family and business law complement each other well in practice, as his skills from one area transfer easily to the other. Business litigation cases tend to require fewer Court appearances, but the family law cases of Mr. Meriwether's practice has afforded him the opportunity to appear in Court more often and hone skills necessary both for family law and business litigation. Mr. Meriwether's business litigation and transactional work provide the experience and ability to examine and tirelessly move through financial documents, both for business cases, including personal and small businesses, as well as family law cases involving large marital estates in need of equitable division.

Mr. Meriwether utilizes the latest computer software to maintain detailed and comprehensive records of his complex cases. This software allows Mr. Meriwether and his clients to quickly access case information and ensures that no details of the case are overlooked.

Family Law

Mr. Meriwether handles a broad range of family law cases, including divorce, adoption, child custody and support modification, adoption, domestic violence, and premarital agreements. He regularly deals with marital assets ranging from those of little or even negative value to those worth millions of dollars, and competently calculates spousal and child support when applicable.

Mr. Meriwether has said, "In the Courtroom, we zealously represent our clients. But often, fierce litigation is not the best way to resolve a divorce, and we work to settle cases through active negotiation. A divorce can be the most life altering and stressful event anyone can go through, but it does not have to be." To help alleviate the stress often involved in family law cases, Mr. Meriwether takes a collaborative approach to family law. This approach involves utilizing negotiation and mediation to help maintain an amicable relationship between the parties. In cases with children, collaborative law protects the children above all else, creates a win/win situation for the parties, and the parties walk away as satisfied as possible.

In some family law cases, collaborative law will not work, or is inappropriate. Mr. Meriwether evaluates every case on an individual basis to determine how aggressive to approach the case based on the facts, the Court in which the case will be heard, and the Judge who will hear the case. The goal is to achieve the best possible outcome for an individual client. In Mr. Meriwether's experience, compared to a more subtle approach, a "take no prisoners" attitude often results in higher lawyer's fees without a corresponding increase in the achieved result. As such, Mr. Meriwether aims to provide the correct level of aggressiveness to each case for the best result possible.

Business Law

Mr. Meriwether handles a variety of business law cases including simple and complicated business formations, and business divorces. He routinely forms Limited Liability Companies and Corporations. In so doing, he often is asked to draft complex contracts to assist the new business entity with its operations. He also assists clients with the buying and selling of businesses (including the due diligence associated with this process).

Mr. Meriwether views business formations involving a group of friends or acquaintances as marriages, albeit financial ones, and he excels in spotting potential pitfalls when parties are entering into a business relationship. He works hard to ensure that his clients enter into their business ventures well-informed and protected from whatever business complications they may encounter.

Membership

State Bar of Georgia (Member of the Family Law and Business Law Sections)
The Florida Bar
American Bar Association (Member of the Family Law and Business Law Sections)

Admissions
1996, Georgia
1996, Florida

Speaking Engagements
LLC Trends and Developments by National Business Institute. Continuing Legal Education for fellow attorneys.

Arbitration
In 2007, Mr. Meriwether obtained his certification for arbitration. He is ready to arbitrate any Family Law issues and most Business Law matters.

Professional Experience - Mr. Meriwether was admitted to practice law in Florida and Georgia in 1996. In 1998, Patrick L. Meriwether left the Atlanta office of Arthur Anderson and joined Robert Tharp to establish Meriwether & Tharp. His position at Arthur Anderson involved providing tax advice to a variety of large corporations. Mr. Meriwether; however, missed the personal satisfaction that comes with running his own practice and assisting small businesses and individuals with their legal needs. This is where he felt that he could really make the biggest difference.

Community Experience - Mr. Meriwether volunteers time to teach Judo to both children and adults. He holds a Black Belt in Judo and, when he competed in law school, he was the Florida State Champion in his weight division two years in a row. At the 2007 Georgia State Games, he won the gold in his division.

Daniel Woodring was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but has lived in Florida for the past twenty years. In Florida, he has lived and worked in Pensacola, Clearwater, Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tallahassee. His wife Jean, who is also an attorney, was born in Miami, and grew up in Ft. Myers.

Daniel Woodring is a member of the Florida and Georgia Bars, and is admitted to practice before the Florida Federal Southern, Middle and Northern District Courts, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has worked at the trial level on cases in many of Florida's 20 judicial circuits, in addition to cases in state administrative tribunals, and has argued cases at the Florida Supreme Court and Florida District Courts of Appeal, and briefed cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.

He graduated from the University of Florida, College of Law with a Juris Doctorate, Cum Laude, and received his B.A. degree from Clearwater Christian College, Summa Cum Laude.

After law school, Mr. Woodring was in private practice doing general civil and appellate work. He then left for a two year appellate clerkship at the First District Court of Appeal. During his time at the court, he worked on cases including, but not limited to: criminal; family law; administrative law; workers' compensation; civil and constitutional law.

Mr. Woodring next worked as a counsel in the Executive Office of the Governor, Office of the General Counsel. During his time in Governor Bush's Legal Office he had diverse responsibilities, including oversight and strategic litigation management of significant legal matters at numerous Governor's agencies, including the Department of Education; Department of Management Services; Department of Business and Professional Regulation; Department of Health; Agency for Health Care Administration; Department of Children and Families; Department of Community Affairs; Department of Elder affairs; Agency for Workforce Innovation; Department of Transportation, and the Department of State. He was also legally responsible for topics as diverse as emergency operations; advising the Governor on the selection of judges; implementation of civil service reform; reform of workers' compensation; budget and appropriation matters; Indian gaming law; and advice to the Florida Cabinet sitting in its many capacities, such as the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory Commission.

Daniel Woodring was then asked to be the General Counsel for the Florida Department of Education, which encompassed Pre-K though 12th Grade, community colleges and the Florida University System. He was also the Charter General Counsel for The Board of Governors, when that board was constitutionally created to manage the State University System. During his tenure at the Department of Education, Mr. Woodring advised and litigated on matters including, but not limited to: constitutional challenges to Florida's education programs, including Opportunity Scholarships and the charter school approval and appeal process; doing away with race as a preference in university admissions and state contracting; teacher and professional discipline cases; union, labor and employment matters; state procurement and bid protest proceedings; administrative rule challenges and rule making proceedings; IDEA and Section 504 proceedings; public records, government in the sunshine and ethical matters; contract negotiations and disputes.

Since 2007, Mr. Woodring has been back in private practice as the principal of the Woodring Law Firm, located in Tallahassee, Florida, and practicing statewide and in Georgia. He concentrates his practice on appeals; constitutional cases instate and federal court; education law matters; and state administrative matters, including state procurement, regulation and licensing.

Rhys T. Wilson is a partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP and Co-Leader of the Firm's National M&A Practice Group. Mr. Wilson has been selected by his peers as a Georgia Super Lawyer in Mergers and Acquisitions. More information about Mr. Wilson and his M&A work and other experience can be found at LinkedIn, Martindale, Avvo and the Nelson Mullins websites (see links at right).

A founding partner in Turkheimer & Hadden, John Hadden began his practice representing seriously injured parties after receiving extensive experience representing insurance companies and corporate defendants while at a prominent Atlanta law firm.

Our Firm handles serious litigation matters in cases involving personal injuries, wrongful death, automobile accidents, medical malpractice, workers compensation, and business/commercial disputes. Our practice includes cases in both state and federal courts, at the trial level and at the Courts of Appeal.

John is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, American Bar Association, Georgia Trial Lawyer's Association, Atlanta Bar Association, American Association for Justice, and Lawyer-Pilot's Bar Association. He is admitted to practice before all Georgia courts (including the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court), the United Stated District Courts for the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia, and the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.