Kathy L. Portnoy

Partner

Kathy Portnoy is a founding member of Portnoy, Garner & Nail, LLC. She has spent most of her legal career representing individuals in family law and domestic relations matters, including prenuptial agreements, divorce, custody, modification, child support, contempt, and legitimization actions. During her career, Kathy has represented fathers, mothers, grandparents, homemakers, business owners, professionals, Fortune 500 executives, and professional athletes at their most vulnerable times.

Well known for her trial and courtroom skills, Kathy has successfully tried hundreds of cases and contested hearings in courtrooms across the country. She is a loyal and resolute advocate for her clients, but she also possesses a unique ability to discreetly resolve the difficult issues faced by her clients. Having faced nearly every issue that may arise in domestic and family law matters, she offers unique and creative perspectives that allow for successful resolution of her cases. In particular, Kathy is known as a go-to lawyer for difficult and contested child custody cases and is routinely recognizedby her peers as being among the best lawyers handling domestic and family law matters.

Every year since 2005, Kathy has been awarded the SuperLawyer designation, which is reserved for the top 5% of lawyers in Georgia and is based on recommendations from her fellow lawyers. Atlanta Magazine has designated her as one of the SuperLawyers Top Women Attorneys in Georgia. Additionally, she has received the Legal Elite designation by Georgia Trend and holds the highest possible AV rating, which recognizes the highest levels of skills and integrity, from both peers and judges in Martindale-Hubbell, the nation’s preeminent information and attorney rating agency. She has published articles in the Family Law Quarterly and Georgia Psychologist, and she is the author of the Georgia Domestic Relations Case Finder, which is published by LexisNexis and is currently in its fifth edition.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, she earned her J.D. from the Emory University School of Law, where she served as a member of the Emory Law Journal and graduated Order of the Coif, the highest graduating honor. Kathy entered private practice after clerking for the Georgia Court of Appeals. Other professional activities include serving as a faculty member on the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and as an adjunct faculty member at the Emory University School of Law, teaching legal research and writing and appellate presentations.

Kathy and her family live in the Atlanta area. She is an avid reader and advocate for the Atlanta arts community, was a founding member of the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, was co-chair of the Community Book Festival, and was past president of the Atlanta Literary Group and remains a member today. Kathy also formerly served on the board of the Learning Disabilities Association of Georgia.