ABOUT LEIGHTON
Leighton is a fourth-generation Georgia lawyer. His parents were active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, registering Black voters in Middle Georgia and working to integrate Mercer University. They raised Leighton to believe that persuasion is more powerful than force, and that the law can and should be a tool for justice.
After attending public schools in Decatur, Georgia, Leighton earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University and a master’s degree from Emory University. He then went on to Harvard Law School, finishing in the top ten percent of his class. After law school, Leighton was privileged to serve as a law clerk to the late Honorable Richard Sheppard Arnold, a United States Circuit Judge in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Leighton returned home to Atlanta and honed his litigation skills at national law firms. In 2015 he founded his own firm to represent those whose lives have been changed by a major injury, wrongful death, or violation of constitutional rights. Click here to learn more about Leighton’s law practice.
Leighton also writes and performs original music in traditional and modern Americana styles. Hear Leighton’s music here.
AREAS OF PRACTICE
MOTIONS AND APPEALS
In major cases, trial lawyers often hire “embedded” appellate counsel during the pretrial phase, to build the best possible team for their clients and ensure that any legal issues are preserved for appeal. Appellate counsel looks beyond the trees to see the forest, finding new paths to the best result. Daubert motions, dispositive motions, questions of statutory construction, and post-trial challenges to a verdict are just a few settings where the appellate attorney’s specialized skill set can help put the case in the most advantageous position for settlement or trial.
When an appeal must be taken, experience counts. A former appellate clerk and past Chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Georgia, Leighton has handled well over 100 appeals in the Georgia Court of Appeals; the Supreme Court of Georgia; the United States Courts of Appeals; and the Supreme Court of the United States. Read more…
CONSTITUTIONAL LITIGATION
Vindicating constitutional rights is among the highest pursuits in the law, and one of the most difficult. In two decades of constitutional litigation, Leighton has:
Successfully represented young men confined in Georgia’s juvenile justice system against State officials for failing to prevent chronic riots, violence, and sexual assault, resulting in settlements totaling over $3 million;
Represented a journalism student who was shot near the eye with a plastic bullet during the May 2020 George Floyd protests in downtown Atlanta
MAJOR INJURY, WRONGFUL DEATH, & CRIME VICTIMS
Leighton represents injured persons, family members, and victims of crime against those who are legally responsible for serious injury and wrongful death. Leighton takes special satisfaction in standing up for the rights of the disadvantaged, including victims of abuse, victims of excessive or wrongful police violence, and crime victims injured due to negligent security. Some of Leighton’s recent cases include: Click for some of Leighton’s recent cases…
PRESS
Leighton featured on WSB-TV news story, “Family of Man Who Fell to Death after Taser Hit Sues County, Officers” (Timecode 1:05)
MUSIC
MUSIC BIO
Raised on the songs of the civil rights movement, Leighton has studied music since the age of five. He began writing his own songs at sixteen. Leighton’s music draws from a variety of genres, including folk, blues, bluegrass, swing, rock, alt-country, and classic R&B. His lyrics blend storytelling, poetry, and humor, gravitating towards perennial themes of love, death, change, hardship, beauty, and hope.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Leighton performed regularly at local venues such as The Rookery and the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, and the Little Five Points Pub, the Freight Room, and outdoor festivals in Atlanta. He took a hiatus from performing after his first child was born. In 2021, Leighton went into the studio with engineer-producer Martin Kearns and a gathering of wonderful musicians, and recorded an album and an EP of original songs. To hear and download Leighton’s recordings, click here.
Leighton now performs as a singer-songwriter, and also loves to learn and play other artists’ music. To book, or to contact Leighton about musical projects, click here.
Check out Leighton’s songs on SPOTIFY
