Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

Practice Areas

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.

Philip S. Coe is a trial lawyer and counselor with more than 30 years of litigation experience. Mr. Coe's practice over the years has been wide-ranging, but with major focus on family law, including contested divorce, custody and support modification actions. Although he remains first and foremost a trial lawyer, Mr. Coe is also a registered Mediator and Arbitrator and Neutral Case Evaluator. Most recently, Mr. Coe has become a passionate advocate for and practitioner of Collaborative Divorce Practice.

Teresa Garcia’s practice concentrates in the field of Family Law, Adoptions and Wills. She handles contested and uncontested divorces, child custody, child support, alimony, visitation, paternity/legitimation, amendment of birth certificates, name changes, enforcement of judicial orders, post-judgment agreements, family violence protective orders and prenuptial agreements.

Ms. Garcia handles contested and uncontested adoptions for relative adoptions, step-parent adoptions, independent adoptions (where adoptive parents are not related to the child), agency adoptions, adult adoptions, domestication of foreign adoptions, and re-adoptions.

Ms. Garcia also handles wills, estate planning, powers of attorney and guardianships.

She represents clients in all metro-Atlanta counties including the outer counties of Georgia. She is fluent in Spanish.

Nora Polk, a native Texan, received her B.A. in Political Science from Texas A&M University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. During her law school career, she attended the University of Cape Town in South Africa to study comparative justice through a Study Abroad program.

Ms. Polk worked for Atlanta Legal Aid Society for over eight years in the Downtown and Gwinnett County offices. She handled an active caseload of domestic relations, family violence, housing, consumer, public benefits, and disability cases. She was the supervising attorney of the Gwinnett office, managing student interns, paralegals, and new lawyers.

In July 2007, Nora Polk partnered with fellow Atlanta Legal Aid supervising attorney, Adrienne Ashby. Ashby & Polk, LLC, is located in downtown Atlanta. It is a law firm specializing in wills, trusts, estate planning, powers of attorney, guardianship, probate, elder law, divorce, custody, legitimation, and child support.


She has been featured in local publications, including the Atlanta Bar Magazine. She has also appeared on television as a legal expert for the local news and as a guest speaker on Layman’s Lawyer.


Ms. Polk is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and the Gwinnett County Bar Association. She is a member of the Founding Class of the State Bar of Georgia Young Lawyers Division’s Leadership Academy.


Ms. Polk is married to Philip Polk. They have two sons, Kobie Alexander Polk and Nile Christopher Polk.