Kathy McArthur (left) and Lindsey Macon, The McArthur Law Firm. (Photo:  John Disney/ALM)

Lindsey Macon had been an associate for two years at King & Spalding, working on its tobacco trial team, when her mother, prominent plaintiffs lawyer Kathy McArthur, mentioned she was looking for an Atlanta attorney to handle local work for her Macon-based personal injury firm.

Her daughter asked her for the job.

Macon joined the McArthur Law Firm right after Labor Day, McArthur's 65th birthday. She opened the firm's Atlanta branch last week after taking some time to work with her mom in Macon.

McArthur started her firm 12 years ago after practicing with Carl Reynolds at Reynolds & McArthur in Macon for almost three decades. Over the years, McArthur has won numerous multimillion dollar verdicts for vehicle accident and medical malpractice cases, and she's taken bar leadership roles, serving as the president of the American Board of Trial Advocates' Georgia chapter and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers.

"I was a novelty for my first 20 years as a female trial lawyer. Now to have my daughter join me in my practice—and to spearhead the Atlanta office—is a great thing," McArthur said.

At 65, McArthur said, she's not ready to retire. "This has been such a rewarding career for me," she said. Her firm had grown to four lawyers and about 20 total employees when she decided earlier this year it was time to add an attorney in Atlanta to help with its medical malpractice and personal injury caseload there.

"We've never been so busy," McArthur said. "I feel like I'm at the peak of my career. But I'm also thinking about the future. I'll be around to help with rainmaking while Lindsey builds the Atlanta office."

Macon said she'd always wanted to be a trial lawyer—and had hoped to someday work with her mother. But she already knew what being a plaintiffs lawyer was like from growing up with McArthur. When King & Spalding offered her a job in its tort litigation practice in 2017, she took it.

At that point Macon, a 2015 graduate of Duke University Law School, had clerked two years for Senior Judge Hugh Lawson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

"I didn't want to exclude other possibilities. Going to King & Spalding was a dream in and of itself—and I got to do tort work, which is what I've always wanted to do," Macon said.

One of King & Spalding's top litigators, Ray Persons, encouraged Macon to apply for the tobacco trial group, she said, because it offers "trial experience that is rather unique for Big Law." King & Spalding lawyers get courtroom experience on its tobacco trial team, which defends RJR Reynolds in single-plaintiffs litigation in the Florida Engle progeny cases, she explained.

"I got some great trial experience," Macon said, noting she helped try three Florida tobacco cases to verdict while at King & Spalding.

Meanwhile, she said, her mother's firm had several medical malpractice cases pending on Atlanta court calendars, and McArthur wanted to open an office there.

"I loved what I was doing at King & Spalding, but the timing was right for someone to join my mom's firm. I wanted that someone to be me," Macon said, adding that her colleagues at King & Spalding were "incredibly supportive" of her decision.

"My mom loves her job. Seeing her so passionate about her cases is kind of contagious. It's really inspiring to be around someone who feels that way," Macon said. "Sitting face-to-face with a client who really needs you—who's suffering from something and being able to help them with that—is really inspiring and motivating."

Atlanta Expansion

Macon said her aim is to grow the Atlanta office and bring on more attorneys as work permits.

She has spent the last two months working closely with her mother to learn the ropes of plaintiffs law and her new firm's cases. She said she's accompanied McArthur nonstop on depositions and deposition defenses, preparing as if she were going to take or defend them herself. She watches how McArthur handles them and asks her questions afterward.

"I want to make sure I'm approaching this in the same way," she said. "I love to be in the courtroom. I'm hoping I'll be trying my own cases soon."

The McArthur firm's Atlanta office is located in shared space at Colony Square with the Bell Law Firm, which also houses Tyrone Law Firm, Schlachter Law Firm and several other plaintiffs firms.

Macon said it is an ideal incubatorlike set up for her, with established plaintiffs lawyers focused on medical malpractice and personal injury cases to consult locally, such as Lloyd Bell, Nelson Tyrone and Lawrence Schlacter, in addition to her firm's colleagues.

She and McArthur connected with Bell in September at a lunch for the American Board of Trial Advocates. Bell, who was sitting at their table, mentioned he had space opening up in his complex.

"It was really fortuitous," Macon said.  "I didn't know the Atlanta plaintiffs scene—and it's an amazing opportunity to share space with really good lawyers with great reputations."