PROFESSIONALS

Attorney Vickie Carlton-Sadler

Vickie S. Carlton-Sadler is a seasoned attorney and passionate advocate for her clients, dedicated to providing pro bono legal services to the under served community.

Attorney Sadler is permitted to practice Law in the State of Georgia and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Prior to practicing law, she gained broad experience in trust and estate planning while working for a major financial institution.  

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Sadler's education began at the University of Alabama where she earned a B.S. from the Culverhouse School of Accounting. Followed by receiving her J.D. from Mercer University, Walter F. George School of Law, where she also obtained a Legal Writing Certificate for additional studies in Mercer’s legal writing courses. 

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Since the start of her career she has portrayed flexibility in her profession, having served as an Associate Professor at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School, where she taught  courses in Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Remedies, Property, Trust, Wills and Estates, Advanced Negotiations, and etc.  She is a current member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta Bar Association, and the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys. She also serves as Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee for the Women’s Lawyer Division of the National Bar Association, and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society’s Advisory Board. 

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Attorney Sadler is continuously finding innovative ways to expand her knowledge base, using her experience to supplement her extensive studies. 

Counsel Karen V. Mills

Karen Mills' breadth of experience extends to business and corporate transactional law, where she has advised a variety of entities on issues related to mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financing, corporate governance, and other general corporate matters. Having served as a partner in the corporate practice at one of Atlanta's oldest law firms, Karen values her client relationships and benchmarks her success against the longevity of those relationships.

Earlier in her career, Karen was an electrical engineer with Duke Power Company and designed electrical distribution systems to serve residential, commercial and industrial customers. Karen then managed the organization's Transmission Line Lightning Reliability Improvement Program, providing technical and engineering expertise to support substation and transmission structure standards. 

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Karen also leveraged her engineering background in her legal career. She provided advice to her clients regarding the evaluation of technology to assess patentability, prosecution of patent applications, and patent licensing. Karen has continued to use her technical expertise for issues regarding intellectual property. 

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Karen graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, with honors. Karen obtained her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also a registered professional engineer in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Counsel Jace C. Gatewood

Mr. Gatewood has over 28 years’ legal experience in the private sector, where he specializes principally in estate planning and a wide range of commercial, corporate, real estate, and finance transactions.  His expertise includes representation of individual clients in strategic estate planning, including asset protection, probate avoidance and estate tax savings, as well as the representation of corporate and institutional clients in complex commercial transactions, including commercial and ground lease developments, affordable housing, construction, project financing, tax credit transactions, real estate purchase and sales, foreclosures and work-outs, and other contract-based transactions.

Mr. Gatewood is also currently Associate Dean for Academic Programs and a tenured Associate Professor of Law at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, where he teaches Wills, Trusts and Estates, Real Property Law, Business Organizations, Sales and Secured Transactions, Agency law, and Negotiations.  He is a published author, having published four law review articles in his is areas of expertise, and he is a frequent lecturer on estate planning techniques, real estate, business formations, and other related issues.

Mr. Gatewood is admitted to both the New York and Georgia State Bars.  He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Business and Finance Law Section of the Atlanta Bar Association, and a former partner at one of Atlanta’s largest firms.  He also served as Assistant General Counsel of the Atlanta Housing Authority.