Tina Roddenbery of Boyd Collar Nolen Tuggle & Roddenbery, Atlanta. (Courtesy photo)

Tina Shadix Roddenbery has become a name partner in what is now Boyd Collar Nolen Tuggle & Roddenbery, one of Atlanta's oldest and largest family law firms.

Roddenbery dissolved her own firm, Holland & Roddenbery, to become an equity partner with Boyd Collar, precipitated by the retirement of her longtime partner, Gwenn Holland.

Boyd Collar is hosting a reception Nov. 13 to officially welcome Roddenbery, who joined Aug. 31. Her addition gives the family law firm 16 lawyers.

“Tina has a phenomenal reputation for professionalism and integrity in the Atlanta market, and is one of the preeminent family law attorneys in the state,” said Boyd Collar's managing partner, John Collar. “We are thrilled to have her leadership and are confident that the depth of her experience in all aspects of family law will be instrumental as we enter our next phase of growth.”

Roddenbery, 56, said she decided to join old friends at Boyd Collar instead of continuing Holland & Roddenbery after Holland's retirement in August, adding that Boyd Collar's emphasis on mediation and its involvement in the legal community were big factors.

“Boyd Collar Nolen Tuggle was at the top of my list” in considering other Atlanta family law firms, she said. “I've known the partners for a long time from having cases against them and mediating with them.”

“I can't replace Gwenn—and what we built over 31 years of practice,” Roddenbery added. Holland had been her mentor since she joined predecessor firm Kidd & Vaughn in 1987 as a first-year associate, she said. “She is an extraordinary person to me who accomplished a lot in her career.”

Holland joined Kidd & Vaughn as an associate during the 1970s, when far fewer women were practicing law, and went on to become a partner, Roddenbery said. Holland and Roddenbery formed their firm in 2011, after the dissolution of Holland Schaeffer Roddenbery Blitch when David Schaeffer and Jim Blitch started their own firms handling business litigation and plaintiffs law. Schaeffer is now a neutral at Miles Mediation & Arbitration.

Boyd Collar, said Roddenbery, “has been very visionary in building its private arbitration and mediation practice, with Cindy Wright and the private courtroom. I think that is where family law is heading.”

Boyd Collar recruited Wright, a former Fulton County Superior Court judge, as a partner after she retired from the bench in 2015 to start her own mediation and arbitration practice, handling family law and other civil disputes.

Since then, Boyd Collar has established its own private courtroom in the firm's Vinings office at 3330 Cumberland Blvd.

To help Fulton County Superior Court's family law division with its high caseloads, Wright announced two years ago that she would arbitrate pro bono cases that the court's four family law judges referred to the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, as well as family law cases for AVLF clients who are domestic abuse survivors.

Wright served as the court's first dedicated family law judge in 1998 when it started its family law division as a pilot program.

Even though private arbitration means the parties pay for an arbitrator, Roddenbery said it can be more efficient and less costly because of the speed of the proceedings—and it offers privacy.

“You can schedule arbitrations when convenient instead of waiting for a calendar, and so you can get to the decision-maker a lot sooner,” Roddenbery said, adding that arbitration became a viable option for divorce cases after the state Legislature passed a 2015 law allowing child custody matters to be arbitrated.

Roddenbery has served on the State Bar of Georgia's Board of Governors since 1995 and is the vice president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers' Georgia chapter. Boyd is a former president of the group's Georgia chapter and the firm's other lawyers also are active in local and state bar associations.

Roddenbery received the 2015 Joseph T. Tuggle Award from the state bar's family law section, of which she is a past chair, for exemplary professionalism. She has served as president of AVLF's board of directors and on the Atlanta Legal Aid Society's advisory board.