Tinsley Stokes, Supreme Court of Georgia judicial law clerk (left) and McNeill Stokes, Mableton attorne. (Courtesy photo)

For the past 250 years, a love for problem-solving has driven generation after generation of the Stokes family to practice law in the South. After creating a legal legacy in North Carolina, Tennessee and most recently Georgia, the family that boasts nine generations of lawyers is now charting new territory with the bloodline's first woman in law. |

'Exhilarating and Terrifying'

Tinsley Stokes, Supreme Court of Georgia Judicial Law Clerk. (Courtesy photo)

It hasn't been long since the Stokes family gained its newest attorney. Since graduating from the University of Georgia School of Law in May and passing the Georgia bar exam in July, Tinsley Stokes has spent the past five months clerking with Justice Charles Bethel at the Supreme Court of Georgia. She's slated to later transition to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia as a term clerk for Judge William M. Ray II before joining Jones Day in Atlanta. Fresh into her legal career, Tinsley said she's still deciding her legal aspirations but has already garnered a love for appellate work. From assisting as a legal intern and summer associate for law firms and courts to serving as a student attorney involved in the UGA Law Appellate Litigation Clinic, appellate opportunities have piqued her interests. "I worked on two Eleventh Circuit appeals," Tinsley said. "We won both of the appeals." The day before graduating law school, Tinsley said she'd been able to stand for oral argument before the federal appeals court as a student attorney. She argued in Lester James Smith, Jr. v. D/W/S Dewberry, et al, a 1983 action for failure to protect, before the 11th Circuit on plain error review. "It was one of the most exhilarating and terrifying things I've ever done," she said. "We we really didn't expect to win. We just wanted to try and so we were very, very excited when we did get a remand in the case."

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Read the Eleventh Circuit Ruling

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  The experience solidified Tinsley's desire to be a litigator, but following in her family's footsteps hadn't always been a sure plan. As a University of Michigan undergraduate, the Georgia native achieved her Bachelors of Arts in economics while minoring in environmental studies and music. Armed with a love for the harp, she'd spent years teaching children about music theory before considering a music career herself. "When I was in college, I originally was a music major," she said. "I was a harpist and I thought that was what I was going to do. But, then I had a gut feeling that I might be interested in pursuing a career in law." To test out her hunch, Tinsley said she went to work handling filings for labor and employment law firm, and then a criminal defense law firm. "I had a realization that if I loved the grunt work that much, then I would really enjoy doing the real lawyer work," she said.   |

'Do Some Good'

When it comes to "real lawyer work," Tinsley has 250 years of lineage to pull from. At closest reach is her father, McNeill Stokes, a Mableton attorney who's been in practice the past 57 years. Like his daughter, McNeill hadn't planned on following in the family's legal footsteps, but said he had an epiphany as a young adult while serving at sea with the Navy.

McNeill Stokes, attorney in Mableton, Georgia. (Courtesy photo)

"I was making out an application to Harvard Business School while on my carrier and one of the questions was, 'Why do you want to go to Harvard?'" McNeill said. "I started off writing, 'I want to go to Harvard Business School because—' and I couldn't finish that sentence. I said, 'I want to go to law school, instead.' It was an 'ah ha' moment." McNeill said he'd become a chemical engineer and his brother, Ogden, had become a physicist, before the opportunity to combine their love for analytical problem-solving with the law lured them both to become lawyers. "It's interesting problem-solving and a variety of problem-solving where you can do some good," McNeill said.  

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Slideshow: Stokes Family Legal Lineage

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McNeill said their family's legal background began with John Stokes, who'd practiced law in North Carolina. In addition to being appointed the first federal judge in the state by President George Washington in 1790, McNeill said the family's first jurist had been a founding trustee of the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. "As a captain in the Revolutionary army, he was horribly injured in the Battle of Waxhaw known as 'Bufford's Massacre' where he received numerous wounds including having a hand cut off," McNeill said. "He had a metal ball to replace his severed hand that he used as a gavel. He died during his first federal trial at Newberne, North Carolina, in 1790." According to McNeill, the second and third generation of the Stokes' legal lineage derive from North Carolina lawyer Thomas Stokes, who represented Chatham County in the North Carolina General Assembly between 1796 and 1797, and Silvanus Stokes, who studied law until his sudden death in 1818.

Jordan Green Stokes, attorney in Nashville, Tennessee. (Courtesy photo)

"He was run over by a wagon in the Cumberland Gap going from Chatham County, North Carolina to settle land willed to him by his father in Smith County, Tennessee," McNeill said. Silvanus' youngest son, Jordan Green Stokes, had been just seven months old at the time of his death, but that didn't stop him from becoming the family's fourth-generation attorney, according to McNeill. After graduating from UNC School of Law, Jordan practiced law in middle Tennessee's city of Lebanon before establishing an office in Nashville in 1836. "He was an incorporator and founding trustee of Vanderbilt University in 1873 and a founder and original faculty member of Vanderbilt Law School teaching criminal law, torts and real property," McNeill said. McNeill said five generations of Stokes lawyers followed behind Jordan as licensed members of the Tennessee Bar until the death of his brother, Ogden, in February 2022.   |

'Takes On a Cause'

In addition to helping establish law schools, McNeill said most jurists in his family leveraged litigation to advance an objective. "Each generation has done some good," McNeill said. "Each generation takes on a cause." After graduating from Vanderbilt University Law School, fifth generation-attorney Jordan Stokes Sr. practiced law in Nashville. McNeill said his great grandfather took on several high-profile cases.

(l-r) Jordan Stokes Jr., Jordan Stokes Sr., Jordan Stokes III. (Courtesy photo)

"He won declaratory judgment in the 1914 case that declared independence of Vanderbilt University from the Methodist Church," McNeill said. Stokes Sr. also helped handle the appeal of the "Scopes Monkey Trial" following the 1925 prosecution of a Tennessee science instructor for teaching evolution in a public school in violation of a recently passed bill, according to his great-grandson. McNeill's grandfather Jordan Stokes Jr. and father, Jordan Stokes III make up the sixth and seventh generations of the family's lawyers. Like McNeill, both of his predecessors graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School. Both men went on to practice law in Nashville where McNeill said his father championed several societal causes ahead of their time. After passing the Tennessee Bar exam at the age of 19, McNeill said his father spent much of the next 60 years of his life involved in the Nashville music industry as general counsel of the Nashville Musicians Union until his death. "He was about 10 years ahead of the population in societal thinking," McNeill said. "He represented unions in the 1930s, civil rights in the 1940s when he integrated the police and fire departments in Nashville and voting rights in the 1950s." |

'Become Very Popular'

As the eighth generation of Stokes attorneys, McNeill said he'd made it his focus to reform the prison system, homing in on prisoner and civil rights matters. In 2002, he garnered attention as plaintiff counsel in Coleman Jackson v. The State Board by securing parole consideration for an imprisoned client being denied the opportunity under a retroactively applied rule change. At the time of Jackson's August 1996 offense, Georgia law required prisoners convicted of aggravated assault to serve a minimum of "one-third of the prison term imposed by the sentencing court" before becoming eligible for an initial parole hearing before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. But in 1997, the Board amended its statutory guidelines to provide that any offender convicted on or after January 1, 1998, of a variety of offenses, including aggravated assault, be "required to serve a minimum of 90% of the court imposed term of incarceration in prison." Arguing before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, McNeill convinced Judge William C. O'Kelley that the Board of Pardons and Paroles' retroactive application of its 90% time-served policy to Jackson's sentence for his 1996 offense unconstitutionally postponed the date of his earliest possible parole eligibility. In addition to securing his client an equitable judgment, McNeill's arguments resulted in the State Board of Pardons Paroles being restrained and enjoined from enforcing its amended policy against the plaintiff and being ordered to provide Jackson with an initial parole eligibility hearing within 45 days of O'Kelley's order. Hailing the ruling a victory, McNeill noted the outcome also impacted thousands of other prisoners in similar situations. "When you advance the parole date of 10,000 inmates, you become very popular in the prison system," McNeill said. "Every generation in the Stokes family, we take on some cause." With his youngest of six now marking the ninth generation of attorneys, McNeill said he's looking forward to seeing what cause Tinsley will ultimately support. He celebrated her status as the Stokes family's first woman lawyer, applauding her budding legal career as proof of her determination and tenacity. "She can do anything she wants to do," McNeil said. "Tinsley stands on the shoulders of nine generations of dedicated lawyers."