Profile
The Taylor English model provides clients with very good legal services at a fair price, unburdened by high overhead and fixed hourly charges that ignore the nature and value of the services.
Michael H. Trotter enjoys assisting clients in devising successful solutions to difficult business/legal problems and in finding answers that save companies in some cases and resolve complex challenges in others.
He has served at various times as the principal securities lawyer for more than 15 public companies, including Aaron’s Inc., American Realty Trust, Charter Medical Corp.*, Citizens & Southern Realty Investors*, Colorocs Corp.*, Equitable Leasing Corp.*, Genuine Parts Co.*, Hospital Investors*, I.C.H. Corp., Magic Chef Inc.*, National Data Corp.*, Southmark Corp., Suburban Lodges of America Inc.*, Citizens & Southern National Bank, and Vintage Enterprises Inc.* He also served as the principal corporate attorney for several of these clients. He also has been the responsible attorney for debt financings as large as $525 million ($1.148 billion in 2015 dollars), and has supervised the legal work related to many business sales and acquisitions. He has served as special counsel to committees of independent directors in corporate investigations.
Mr. Trotter has devoted significant time to the representation of closely held businesses as well as family businesses, and he has served as an expert witness/expert adviser with respect to law firm operations and economics in two of the largest law firm bankruptcy proceedings in recent years. He has served as a special master for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
He has taught securities regulation at the Emory University School of Law as well as courses in law firm management and economics.
Mr. Trotter is the author of dozens of articles, columns and essays published in Atlanta’s legal newspaper, The Daily Report, as well as in other publications, such as Managing Partner Magazine, the American Bar Association Journal, and The National Law Journal. He is also the author of two important books on the economics and operations of major business practice law firms in America titled, "Profit and the Practice of Law: What's Happened to the Legal Profession?," and "Declining Prospects: How Extraordinary Competition and Compensation Are Changing America's Major Law Firms." As the author of "What’s to Become of the Legal Profession?," published in 2017, Mr. Trotter discusses the future of the practice of law in the United States. All of Mr. Trotter's books can be found on Amazon.com.
*Michael Trotter was the attorney responsible for the initial public offering of these clients
Memberships
State Bar of Georgia
American Bar Association, Law Practice Division's Law Firm Finance Committee, Past Chair; Law Practice Division's Knowledge Strategy Interest Group, Past Board Member; Law Practice Division's Lawyer Leadership & Management Interest Group, Past Member
Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, Member
Community Involvement
Principal founder, Former executive officer and director of Good Government Atlanta, Research Atlanta, and the Atlanta Committee for Public Education (various times between 1966 and 2002)
Central Atlanta Progress, Past Director
Buckhead Coalition, Past Director
Metro Atlanta Chamber, Past Education Committee
United Way of Greater Atlanta, Past Director
The Butler Street YMCA, Past Director
Butler Y Homes, Past Director
Atlanta Children and Youth Services Council, Past Director and Secretary
The Atlanta Action Forum, Past Agenda Committee Chair and Member, Past Co-Secretary
Urban Design Commission of the City of Atlanta, Past Member
Atlanta Commission on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency, Past Staff Attorney
The Atlanta Crime Commission, Past Director
The Clark Atlanta University School of Business, Past Advisory Board Member
Metro Atlanta Chamber, Education Committee, Past Member
Special Committee appointed by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in the early 1970s to advise the Atlanta Public School System on the creation and operation of a unitary school system, Past Member
Brown University, Trustee, 1978-1983; Student Life Committee and the Minority Affairs Committee of the Brown Corp., Member, 1978-1992
Practice Highlights
Experience
- Assisted client in seeking to acquire control of a major publishing company.
Represented more than 15 companies in their initial or subsequent public offerings of securities.
Advised Colorocs Corp. on its acquisition of control of Savin Corp. Colorocs was a small Norcross, Georgia-based corporation that was still in the development stage and had not generated a dollar in sales revenue. Savin was a NYSE-listed company with more than $350,000,000 in annual sales. Through creative financing package designed by Mr. Trotter, including a special preferred stock, Colorocs was able to obtain control of Savin and realized significant profits ...
Trustee of Citizens & Southern Realty Investors, a member of its Committee of Independent Trustees, as well as it principal outside legal adviser. Advised the Trust in its complex restructuring, asset swap program and debenture exchange in the 1970s. These transactions included the negotiation and renegotiation of a $400 million credit agreement ($1,942 billion in 2016 dollars) involving the reconciliation of the interests of a large syndicate of approximately ...
Served as special counsel to the independent directors of a publicly held real estate investment trust and advised the independent directors in the restructuring of the Trust’s relationship with its adviser and principal business partner without severing the relationship between the Trust and its adviser.
Also assisted the medical technology company in sale to a venture capital firm.
Served as an expert witness/expert adviser with respect to law firm economics and operations in connection with the bankruptcy proceedings of two major law firms.
Newsroom
Speaking Engagements
- December 11, 2014
- November 13, 2014
- October 2, 2013
- Keynote, "Tomorrow's Law Practice: A Forum on the Market, Demand and Opportunities for Lawyers," National Association for Law Placement Foundation and West LegalEdcenter ConferenceOctober 2, 2013
- January 30, 2013
- Keynote, "The Legal and Compliance Technology Forum," Mitratech INTERACT 2012 Conference2012
Publications
- August 2017
- March 3, 2017
- January 5, 2017
- July 6, 2016
- "More for Less: The Impact of Leverage on Succession Planning," Managing PartnerAugust 7, 2013
- June 3, 2013
- September 27, 2012
- "Change Your Fate: How to Avoid a Future of Financial Ruin," Managing PartnerSeptember 17, 2012
- "Declining Prospects–How Extraordinary Competition and Compensation Are Changing America's Major Law Firms," CreateSpace2012
- "Profit and the Practice of Law–What's Happened to the Legal Profession," University of Georgia Press1997, reissued 2012
- June 1, 2012
- Chapter, "Pig in a Poke? The Uncertain Advantages of Very Large and Highly Leveraged Law Firms in America," Raise the Bar–Real World Solutions for a Troubled Profession, ABA2007
Headlines
- September 24, 2018
- December 21, 2017
- November 13, 2017
- August 16, 2017
- August 2017
- August 1, 2017
- March 15, 2017
- March 9, 2017
- March 9, 2017
- November 21, 2016
- June 24, 2016
- May 6, 2016
- April 7, 2016
- April 7, 2016
- December 15, 2015
- October 26, 2015
- October 8, 2015
- March 30, 2015
- November 21, 2013
- November 8, 2013
- November 8, 2013
- November 1, 2013
- October 18, 2013
- September 3, 2013
- June 17, 2013
- June 3, 2013
- May 6, 2013
- April 23, 2013
- January 3, 2013
- September 27, 2012
- September 25, 2012
- September 7, 2012
- June 28, 2012
- June 28, 2012
- June 28, 2012
- June 1, 2012
- May 11, 2012
- May 4, 2012
- May 4, 2012
- May 4, 2012
- May 4, 2012
News Releases
- March 9, 2017
- April 19, 2016
- March 29, 2016
- April 1, 2009
Alerts
- May 26, 2015
Services
Education
Harvard Law School, JD, 1962
Brown University, BA, cum laude, 1958
Harvard University, MA, 1959
Bar Admissions
Georgia
Courts & Adjudicative Bodies
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
Accolades
Phoenix Award, 2016, Mayor of Atlanta, for contributions to the City
Daily Report, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2016
Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated
First recipient of the "Igniting a Passion for Justice Award" of the Southern Regional Council, 2001
Distinguished Service Award of the Atlanta Business League, 1986
Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, Trustee, 1978-1983
Harvard University, Woodrow Wilson Fellow 1958-1959