Meet Colton

I’ve Been on Every Side of This.

Most attorneys understand family law. I’ve lived it: as the kid in the middle, as the person working to help families back from the edge, and now as the attorney in the room fighting for what matters.

The Road Here

Growing up, we had some tough years. My parents were fighting battles I didn’t fully understand as a kid, but I knew enough to know things weren’t easy.

At some point, things came to a head. My dad ended up in a situation that put him in front of the legal system, the kind of moment where someone else is sitting across a courtroom deciding what your family’s future looks like.

Something happened in that room that none of us expected.

He walked out different.

Something shifted in him, deeply and permanently. He turned his life around and never looked back. He went on to work with kids in the foster care system and in ministry, choosing on the other side of his hard years to show up for children and adults who needed someone to show up for them.

That moment stayed with me. I watched the legal system become the line between one version of my family’s story and another. And I decided I wanted to be the person in that room who understood what was actually at stake, not just legally, but for the family sitting in that courtroom.

I became a probation officer. I worked alongside people standing at the exact crossroads my dad had once stood at. Then I became a foster parent, because I knew what it meant for a kid to need someone to choose them. Eventually, I became a family law attorney.

My wife and I have been married for 12 years. We have five kids. I have spent my whole life around families in hard seasons, watching what breaks them, and what brings them back.

When you sit across from me, you’re not a case file. You’re a family at a turning point. And I know better than most what that moment can cost, and what it can become. That’s why I practice law the way I do.

Peace first. Fight when it matters.

I Earned My Way Here

I’m a Maryville native, born and raised. I graduated from Maryville High School in 2002, where I ran track and played football. I was a state champion in the 400 meters, and our football team won all but one game from 1999 to 2002, state titles included. I made all-state in 2002.

I was known for playing aggressive, and I went up against some of the toughest competition around. For a while, I had plans to go pro.

Life had another path for me. That drive earned me a scholarship to Tennessee Tech, where I got my degree in Criminal Justice. From there I went on to Nashville School of Law, working at King & Ballow by day and putting myself through night school to get it done.

Nobody handed me a silver spoon. I’m a self-made man, and I built this practice the hard way.

Here’s what competing taught me: I love to win, and I know how. But somewhere along the way I learned something that matters more. The competition was never the point. The people were.

I value competition. I value people more.

How This Practice Is Different

Most attorneys will tell you to fight hard. Some will tell you to take the aggressive position and let everything else sort itself out later. I’m going to tell you something different.

The most aggressive attorney in the room is often the worst thing that can happen to your kids.

That’s not a comfortable thing to say in a profession where toughness is the marketing pitch. But it’s what the evidence shows, and it’s what I’ve watched happen firsthand, in my own family, on the job as a probation officer, and in the cases I’ve handled over a decade of practice. High-conflict divorce costs children. The research is clear. And more importantly, I’ve seen it.

My job isn’t to tell you what you want to hear. It’s to give you an honest picture of your situation, pursue the most peaceful resolution that actually works for your family, and fight, really fight, when that is what the situation requires.

What to Actually Look for in a Family Law Attorney

Most people hire an attorney the same way they’d hire a contractor: credentials and availability. That’s understandable. But family law is different.

Your attorney’s approach to conflict is not a style preference. It is a strategy with direct consequences for your children.

Here is what actually matters:

Do they know when not to fight?

Any attorney can tell you what they’ll go to war over. The harder question is whether they can tell you, clearly, in plain language, when escalation will hurt your case, your children, or both. Can they make that call and then defend it to you?

Will they tell you the truth?

You don’t need an attorney who tells you what you want to hear in the consultation room. You need one who tells you what you need to know: the realistic outcome, the real cost, and the honest recommendation even when it’s not what you hoped for.

Have they seen this from the other side?

Credentials matter. Experience matters more. But having been inside this system, as the kid on the other side of a family falling apart, as a probation officer watching families at their worst crossroads, as a foster parent, that’s something you can’t study for. It shapes how an attorney reads a room, evaluates a case, and fights when fighting is the only option left.

Ask these questions in any consultation you sit in. The answers will tell you more than a bar rating.

For the kids in the middle.