Scot Burton, general counsel, Phoenix Senior Living. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

Fate picked an interesting time for Scot Burton to become the first general counsel at Phoenix Senior Living—two months before the coronavirus fell onto the national scene and hit nursing homes especially hard.

Burton joined Phoenix, a client of his at Taylor English Duma, in December after 19 years in private practice. On March 9, the company barred any visitors from its 33 senior living centers around the southeast. By the end of that week, activities in vast parts of the United States had shut down.

Burton said the company has followed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and state health departments as they gather personal protective equipment and deal with infections of residents, some of whom have died.

"It's been a real balancing act," he said, referring to safety concerns. He credits the staff for keeping residents engaged and helping families see loved ones via windows and drive-by visits.

While monitoring on legal issues from the virus, Burton is also focused on other areas of the growing company, which has 1,500 employees.

His career started in hotel management after he graduated from the University of Georgia in 1991 with a degree in history. After about four years, he headed to Emory University for law school.

"I didn't know what being a lawyer was all about," he said. He figured he'd find litigation a challenge, and he drifted toward intricate puzzles and problems of tax law. After graduating from Emory in 2000, He went to work at Morris Manning & Martin as a tax lawyer and enjoyed how the firm integrated its tax practice with its real estate work, so he was exposed to a broad range of transactions.

When the Great Recession slowed real estate, Burton moved to Fisher Broyles and then, in 2011, he landed at Taylor English, where he worked on tax controversies, real estate capital markets and opportunity zones, among other projects.

Phoenix Senior Living, which started only six years ago, was a client of Burton's at Taylor English. He said he had never thought about going in-house, but he was very impressed with the vision of Jesse Marinko, the company's founder at CEO. Burton mentioned his interest to the chief financial officer in passing, and soon Burton had started the company's  legal department, along with a paralegal, Teri Seckington.

Burton said he asked other GCs for their advice about how to get started. The top lesson, he said, was that his No. 1 priority should be "selling first-class senior housing to residents." That is—he needed to support the company's mission.

Another nugget was, "Don't say you'll cut their legal bills"—that is, just because there will be cost savings in handling some matters in-house doesn't mean outside counsel won't be needed.

Burton reported that, indeed, he still relies on Taylor English for real estate and employment matters and HudsonParrottWalker for construction law advice.