Michael H. Trotter

Michael H. Trotter is the author of "What's to Become of the Legal Profession?" (CreateSpace, 2017), of "Declining Prospects - How Extraordinary Competition and Compensation Are Changing America's Major Law Firms," (CreateSpace, 2012), and of "Profit and the Practice of Law - What's Happened to the Legal Profession," (University of Georgia Press, 1997; reprint, CreateSpace, 2012), which has become the definitive work on growth and change in the legal profession in America from 1960 to 1995. Articles featuring one or another of his books have appeared in "BusinessWeek," the "New York Times," the "Law Society Gazette," and "Managing Partner" magazine, among others, which can be accessed through his website: trotterlawandeconomics.com.

He is also the author of "Pig in a Poke? The Uncertain Advantages of Very Large and Highly Leveraged Law Firms in America" which appears as the second chapter in "Rise the Bar - Real World Solutions for a Troubled Profession," (American Bar Association Press, 2007), and of more than 30 articles and columns on law firm management and related issues in various publications including the "American Bar Association Journal," "The Daily Report," and the "Journal of Southern Legal History." He also participated in the ABA's "Second Seize the Future" conference in 1999 and its "Raise the Bar" project in 2005. As a result of his varying experiences he has had first-hand knowledge of many of the challenges of law firm management, operations and economics.

Mr. Trotter served as Chair of the Law Firm Finance Committee of the Law Practice Division of the American Bar Association in 2015-16 year. In 2016-17 he taught courses at the Emory University School of Law in the Evolution of the Practice of Law and of Law Practice Economics, and in The Future of the Legal Profession.

He began his legal career in the summer of 1960 working as a "summer boarder" (following his first year of law school) with the Atlanta law firm of Alston, Sibley, Miller, Spann & Shackelford, a firm of 15 lawyers and the predecessor of Alston & Bird that is now one of the 50 largest law firms in the United States. Following his graduation from law school in 1962 he joined the Alston firm as an associate and became a partner in 1967.

During his fifteen years at the Alston Firm he specialized in corporate and securities law and served at various times as chair of the firm's recruiting and its facilities committees and of its Corporate Practice Group. He also served as a member of its Long Term Planning Committee. During this time he became the lawyer principally responsible for the firm's second largest client, the 5th largest real estate investment trust in the United States, and a Trustee of the Trust. The mid-1970's recession imperiled the Trust financially and the Trust discovered that it had substantial claims against its manager, the then largest bank in the Southeastern United States and the Alston's firm's largest client.

As a result, he withdrew from the firm and took the lead in organizing a new law firm, Trotter, Bondurant, Griffin, Miller & Hishon which was recognized by "The American Lawyer" as one of "20 Great New Firms" in its April 1982 edition. Differences among the partners lead him to organize another firm in 1987, Trotter Smith & Jacobs that became a firm of approximately 70 lawyers before it succumbed in the early 1990's recession to the bankruptcy of its two largest clients. He then became a partner in Kilpatrick & Cody, the predecessor firm of today's Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton. He retired from the Kilpatrick firm in 2005. In 2009 Taylor English Duma LLP, a "New Model" law firm offered him the opportunity to serve as both a part time practicing lawyer and a law firm management consultant to the firm where he practices law today.