Gil Middlebrooks

Middlebrooks Law PLLC

Gil Middlebrooks

Middlebrooks Law PLLC

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Firm Summary

I grew up in the Atlanta area, and by tenth grade, I knew that I wanted to be lawyer.  Both Atticus Finch and Perry Mason were early influences.  An old girlfriend later told me that she was mortified that I was “giving up” on math.  I became a lawyer.  She became an actuary.

At Emory University, I studied political science and business.  I sought out courses that required long, persuasive writing projects and those involving legal issues.

I went to the University of Georgia School of Law during our national championship run and rode the bus on occasion with Herschel Walker.  I was selected as the Editor-in-Chief of the Georgia Law Review and worked with great authors like Judge Richard Posner and Grant Gilmore.

After school, I clerked for Judge Phyllis Kravitch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  Judge Kravitch, an amazing jurist, was the first woman ever elected to the trial bench in the Georgia Superior Court before President Carter nominated her to the federal Court of Appeals.

I spent three years in Washington, DC, with the firm that is now Hogan Lovells.  During my time there, I worked on several school desegregation cases and several appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States.

My wife, Carolyn and I, moved to Charlotte in 1986 to be closer to home.  Since then, I worked in two firms, one large and one small — both with great lawyers and great people.

Over the past 30 years, in addition to working with business clients, I have spent a significant amount of time representing educational clients, both at the K-12 and college levels, on all aspects of their businesses.  I’ve worked on special education, construction, teacher tenure, student discipline, condemnation, employment, environmental, and other matters for these clients.

I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.

My aim is to achieve a client’s goals in the most cost-effective and strategic way possible.  Thirty years in various courtrooms, arbitrations, and mediations have given me the experience to know how to navigate murky legal waters for my clients.

Detailed legal knowledge + experience + common sense =results.

Any good lawyer should have detailed legal knowledge of the areas in which he or she works.  What sets apart a “trusted advisor” from a book-smart lawyer is significant experience in those fields and the judgment of how best to achieve a client’s goals without breaking the bank.  My clients appreciate my common-sense approach to their issues.

When I am not practicing law . . .

I currently am serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors for UMAR, a non-profit here in North Carolina that serves adults with developmental disabilities.  UMAR’s mission is to promote community inclusion, independence, and growth for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through residential, employment, and cultural enrichment opportunities.  Learn more at UMAR’s website.

As an adult volunteer in my son’s Boy Scout troop, I went sailing in the British Virgin Islands and Belize.  That sparked a desire to learn and do more.  Since that time, I’ve returned to the BVI several times to sail and also have done an off-shore passage from Grenada back to the United States Virgin Islands.  Sailing appeals to both my intellectual side because there is so much to master and to my love of being outdoors.

Also, I am a terrible golfer who enjoys the holy grail of improvement.  But best of all, I get to play with my son, Charlie, who is far better than I am.