About Karlise

Karlise Yvette Grier is the managing attorney of Grier Law Office, P.C., an Atlanta law firm that concentrates in the areas of complex domestic relations matters. Ms. Grier was appointed to serve as a part-time Magistrate Court judge in Fulton County and she served as a Judicial Officer in the Fulton County Superior Court Family Division from May 2006 through December 2008.  From March 2000 until June 2005, Ms. Grier served as a Judge Pro Hac Vice in the former City Court of Atlanta (“Traffic Court”).

Ms. Grier is an experienced trial attorney and child-welfare lawyer. During her legal career, Ms. Grier has litigated hundreds of cases and participated in several reported cases, including her most recent appellate victory of Frazier v. Frazier, 280 Ga. 687, 631 S.E.2d 666 (2006), a divorce case in which the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the judgment Ms. Grier obtained for her client after Ms. Grier tried the case.

Ms. Grier has tried contested matters - involving issues such as family violence, child custody, child support, alimony, division of marital property, and termination of parental rights - before both judges and juries in Georgia's superior, state, and juvenile courts. She is also an experienced domestic adoption attorney and has successfully represented clients in interstate adoptions, private/independent adoptions, step-parent adoptions, relative adoptions, and agency adoptions.

After completing law school, Ms. Grier began her legal career as a commercial litigation associate at Kilpatrick & Cody (now known as Kilpatrick Stockton LLP). Thereafter, Ms. Grier served as an Assistant Solicitor General for the State Court of Fulton County, where she prosecuted individuals for misdemeanor criminal offenses, including family violence cases. After leaving the Solicitor General's office, Ms. Grier became Of Counsel to the law firm of William R. Jenkins & Associates, where she represented the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services in the Juvenile Court of Fulton County, in deprivation and termination of parental rights proceedings. The cases she litigated often involved issues of severe child abuse and neglect, including medical neglect, sexual molestation, and permanent physical injuries. Ms. Grier opened her own law firm in February 2000, and established Grier Law Office, P.C. in 2004.

Ms. Grier's professional activities are numerous. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and a Barrister in the Charles Longstreet Weltner Family Law Inn of Court. Ms. Grier served as the President of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys ("GABWA") in 2001.  She also currently serves as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia, on the Board of the Butler Street YMCA, and on the Board of the Fulton County Child Attorney Office.  Ms. Grier is a co-founder of the Civil Pro Bono-Family Law Project (now known as Keeping the Bond, Inc.), a non-profit organization dedicated to educating incarcerated mothers about their rights and responsibilities as parents. During her tenure as President of GABWA, Ms. Grier served on a volunteer basis as the Founding Director of GABWA’s Sister-to-Sister Mentoring Project, a Fulton County Juvenile Court program for at-risk girls.  She was appointed to the State Bar of Georgia's Board of Governors in September 2000, where she continues to represent the Atlanta Circuit in Post 30.  Ms. Grier has served on several State Bar of Georgia committees, including the Finance Committee, the Advisory Committee on Legislation, the State Bar’s Access to Justice Committee, and the Electronic Court Filing Committee.  She is a Fellow of the Lawyer’s Foundation of Georgia.  Ms. Grier is a member of the Atlanta Bar Association, the Lawyers Club of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Business League.

In addition to her judicial work and private law practice, Ms. Grier also trains other attorneys and speaks to groups, regarding family law matters, adoption issues, and trial techniques. Her speaking engagements have included television appearances on CNN's In Session to discuss adoption issues, on the Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters' Law and Society, on GABWA's  Legally Speaking, and the Public Broadcasting System's The Laymen's Lawyer to discuss divorce issues.  Ms. Grier has also given presentations for the Georgia Supreme Court Committee on Justice for Children, the Fulton County Department of Family of Children Services, the Georgia State University School of Social work, Roots adoption agency and the Giving Tree adoption agency.  Ms. Grier has also presented at accreditation seminars for Prevent Child Abuse Georgia (formerly the Georgia Council on Child Abuse) and at continuing legal education seminars for various law-related organizations.  For the past several years, Ms. Grier has served as an adjunct faculty member for the Emory University Kessler/Eidson Trial Techniques Program.  In June 2010, Ms. Grier served as the Co-Chair of a trial skills training program for attorneys who practice in juvenile courts.

Ms. Grier received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science from Dartmouth College in 1986, and her law degree from the Emory University School of Law in 1992.  She was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in that same year.

Ms. Grier was born and raised in Fulton County, Georgia.  She attended Collier Heights Elementary School and was graduated from Frederick Douglass High School.  She is a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church and was rasied in the Warren Memorial United Methodist Church.  Ms. Grier currently attends Ben Hill United Methodist Church where she serves as an usher with the Christian Doorkeepers.

For more information about Karlise Yvette Grier, or to support my campaign, please visit me at my web site at www.grierforjudge.com, or contact me at:

Committee to Elect Karlise Yvette Grier
235 Peachtree Street (North Tower)
Suite 400
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-1400
(404) 287-2382
karliseyvette@grierforjudge.com
www.grierforjudge.com