Douglas Chandler

I grew up in the Northwest corner of Georgia in the small town of LaFayette, Walker County. Upon graduation from Auburn University, I was commissioned as a reserve officer in the United States Navy. As a Lieutenant and Naval Flight Officer, I was assigned to the Grumman E-2C “Hawkeye” Aircraft. While on reserve status, I attended Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law where I served on the Board of Directors of the Cordell Hull Speakers Forum. Before entering private practice, I was the law clerk to the Honorable D. Al Crowson, State Court of Alabama, and a Law Clerk at Ferguson & Saunders, LLP of Atlanta.
    In 1999, I began my legal career at a boutique law firm in downtown Atlanta that handled professional malpractice and estate litigation cases. As a newly minted lawyer, I had the privilege of representing twenty-six heirs who lost their family farm, the family home place, and many of the family’s heirlooms to an unscrupulous neighbor who exerted undue influence over the heirs’ elderly relative to get the relative to change her Last Will & Testament. My firm was successful on the appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. 
    That case taught me some hard lessons about how families need to have thorough and proper life and legacy planning in place to protect themselves and their loved ones. The lessons were particularly hard to swallow because, sadly, on retrial after their Supreme Court victory, the jury overturned the clients’ win and awarded the farm, the house and all the heirlooms to the neighbor, not the heirs.
    Since representing the twenty-six heirs in my first estate litigation case 24 years ago, I have had the privilege of handling additional estate litigation cases.  Moreover, in our practice of defending lawyers charged with legal malpractice, I have seen first-hand how estate plans can go wrong, leaving families in conflict and spending tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers and litigation expenses. We definitely learned from the mistakes of our lawyer-clients and, taking those lessons, myself and the lawyers that work with me apply those lessons to make Chandler Law better prepared to serve its life and legacy clients. 
    Beyond litigation, I also represents lawyers throughout all aspects of their legal career. I have represented lawyers who are launching and establishing their law firms throughout all phases of a lawyer’s career to advising those lawyers who are winding down their law firms. In doing so, many lawyers asked whether we could handle their estate planning needs but, in the past, I had to refer them to other firms. I didn’t always feel good about that because I wanted to continue to serve them, so I listened to our clients. Now, based on our experience and careful attention to detail, we are able to assist lawyers as well as many other non-lawyer clients with children with their life and legacy planning.
    I am one of only three Board Certified legal malpractice specialists in Georgia certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys. I have been practicing law for 25 years. To my credit, I have over 30 Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals reported opinions. I am also a Co-Founder and Executive Committee Member of the State Bar of Georgia Professional Liability Section, and an active lecturer and panelist on the topics of Law Firm Risk Management, Legal Professional Ethics, and Malpractice Prevention. I have been recognized numerous years by my peers and Atlanta Magazine as a Super Lawyer—Top 100 in Georgia and Legal Elite by Georgia Trend Magazine. When not practicing law, I enjoy sailing, hunting, fishing, tennis, and just about any other outdoor activity you can think of with my wife and our three children.