Biography: Laurie M. Thomas, Esq.

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Laurie is a successful business owner, mentor, speaker, advocate, mediator, arbitrator and she is the mother of four young women and proud "gaga" to one grandbaby. She is from a military family, with both parents having served, and was raised in Savannah, Georgia. She attended Savannah State University and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a focus on biotechnology. After running her mother’s law office for several years while in college, she decided to follow in her footsteps. She then continued to Florida Coastal School of Law for her Juris Doctor. While in law school, she worked as a high school teacher at one of the largest high schools in Jacksonville, Florida. It was there she grew passionate about youth and education law. She returned home to Savannah, Georgia, after passing the bar, to start the Law Office of Laurie M. Thomas, LLC in 2006.  Her focus areas were family law (specializing in military family law, juvenile law and serving as a guardian ad litem), civil litigation, estate planning, education law, landlord tenant law, personal injury, appeals, VA disability claims, and alternative dispute resolution. 

In Savannah, she became one of the first minority women to represent the Housing Authority of Savannah in a joint contract as General Counsel for over six (6) years. This entailed handling landlord tenant issues, HUD Fair Housing matters, attending board meetings, and providing legal advice on various matters. She also served on the board for Chatham County Alternate Dispute Resolution for over three (3) years. As a board member she helped to set ADR policy that impacted cases in Chatham County courts. She was also a founding member of the Chatham County Juvenile Bar Association to provide support and advocacy to fellow juvenile court practitioners. She currently serves a Secretary on the award-winning Child Protection Section Board of the State Bar of Georgia. The section’s mission is to support practitioners and advocate for children and youth within the State of Georgia on issues and policy directly impacting them. 

In 2015, she took a job with DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center (DCCAC), that allowed her to work full time with youth in foster care, which was her passion at the time. There she specialized in advocating for teenage youth, youth with disabilities, appeals and special education matters. Realizing she could make a greater impact on youth in GA on a larger scale versus one case at a time, she left DCCAC. In 2019 she was selected to be Interim Executive Director for the Morris Brown College Foundation. She continues to serve in this role today. In this role she hopes to help build bridges between families and educational resources to assist them in opening doors to create ongoing change for themselves and their families. She is also proud to be a part of the legacy to restore Morris Brown College. In late 2019, she joined with her law school classmate, Ja’Wand Joi Reed to form Reed Thomas Law Group, LLC. The two combine their varied skills, years of advocacy and passion to provide hands on service for their clients. 

The practice is focused on personal injury, estate planning, family law, business (serving as general counsel for various businesses), civil litigation, appeals, mediation (civil and domestic) and arbitration.  Laurie is currently admitted to practice law in the State of Georgia, Georgia Court of Appeals, Georgia Supreme Court, Southern District Court of Georgia, and the Supreme Court of the United States. 

In her free time she enjoys spending time with family, especially her new grandbaby, giving back to the community by mentoring youth with the Sister 2 Sister program and participating in Wills Project sponsored by GABWA and other community outreach, trying new restaurants, learning about new technology, creating and viewing art, traveling, and reading.