Editor’s note: This sponsored content is published as part of The Manely Firm’s annual partnership with Global Atlanta.
As a young man, Michael Manely rode his motorcycle on dirt roads in his native Cobb County —the majority of the thoroughfares at the time, as he recalls it.
Now, the family law firm bearing his name sponsors the international programs of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, whose office overlooks Truist Park and sits next to a German-owned elevator test tower at The Battery, the mixed-use development anchored by the Atlanta Braves stadium.
“It has changed an awful lot,” Mr. Manely says of the county.
Cobb’s success has been bolstered by the broader growth of the metro Atlanta area, whose unique recipe for investment attraction has always included a heavy dose of welcome.
That spirit of tolerance and openness to the world, accelerated during the civil rights movement when other Southern cities were regressing into racism, also happens to make Atlanta a great place to practice family law, the field in which Mr. Manely and his growing team have carved out an undisputed niche.
“What a brilliant decision it was to bring people together, to put people together and trust in the common evolution of mankind to seek a peaceful goal,” Mr. Manely says.
The Manely Firm P.C. is the only firm in the Southeast U.S. with a dedicated practice focus on international family law, handling cross-border divorces and child-abduction cases that fall under The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
For that reason, the presence of a foreign-born diaspora is a key factor in determining where The Manely Firm has placed its six Georgia offices. In Cobb County, 15.6 percent of residents were born in another country, and the percentage is even higher in Gwinnett, where about a quarter of the population is foreign-born. In Cobb and Gwinnett, the Manely Firm has offices in Marietta and Lawrenceville, respectively, along with one in Midtown Atlanta, another in Cumming and two outside the metro area in Savannah and Columbus.
Whether across state lines or national borders, Mr. Manely says people are always drawn back home — and that’s when issues can arise in families with mixed nationalities, especially when there is trouble in a marriage.
“If it’s not Alabama, but it’s France, or it’s England, or it’s Ethiopia, or it’s Azerbaijan, home calls to them, and so what we’re looking for in terms of where to establish our next office is, ‘What’s the extent of the international community there?’”
It’s also about the sophistication of the courthouse, relationships with the judges and other interpersonal and cultural dynamics in a field where attorneys spend more time in the courtroom than their counterparts in other legal disciplines.
“A critical part of our practice is that all of our attorneys are really good trial attorneys. And that isn’t necessarily true for family law attorneys because the model doesn’t necessarily require that of you,” Mr. Manely says. “But obviously, if you are much more skilled in the courtroom, considering that we’re in the courtroom more than any other group of attorneys that go to court, including prosecutors, you’re going to be that much better at it.”
Another distinguishing factor is the firm’s ability to dig into the complexities of the personal dynamics in a case, blending that understanding with the legal prowess that led to Mr. Manely being the first and only family lawyer ever to win a unanimous decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
“If it’s not Alabama, but it’s France, or it’s England, or it’s Ethiopia, or it’s Azerbaijan, home calls to them.
Michael manely
“We do an awful lot of work in understanding relationships, paradigms and philosophies behind where people are coming from and how to help them move forward, and that’s very different from anybody else that I know of.”
Grounded locally in Georgia, The Manely Firm will soon spread its wings internationally with the opening of a new office in the United Kingdom planned for June. The London outpost will aid the firm’s blend of local and global capabilities.
“Georgia has come to a place where the world community knows us, where the world seeks us out to do business, to raise their families, because this is a good place to raise a family — and recognizes the efforts that we all put into having a peaceful, productive, progressive community.”