Jordan met her husband, Lawton, nephew of Hamilton Jordan, at law school, then they
reconnected at a Red Clay Democrats mixer. “It’s not exactly politically popular to be progressive
in Georgia,” she says. “We knew we had to stick together.”
YOU LIKELY HEARD OF DODGE COUNTY
a few years ago—it was the site of the
nation’s most flamboyant and pervasive
voter fraud.
“Yeah, a lot of dead people were voting,”
Jordan says, with a sigh. “A lot of folks
I know ended up in prison. Actually, if I
start telling stories about things that went
on there—the Dixie Mafia was always
somewhere in the background, and bodies
would turn up in the Ocmulgee River—you
would think I was crazy.”
She did not know any attorneys growing
up. “I was raised by a single mother who
was a hairdresser,” she says. “I really don’t
know what prompted me to take up law.
I wish I was motivated by money—and
my husband wishes I was motivated by
money—but I’m honestly not. I just want to
At the University of Georgia School of
Law, Jordan was a regional champion on
its moot court team, and competed in
New York against the top teams in the
country. “She is tenacious but charming,”
says Kellie Casey, director of advocacy
at the law school. “A brilliant legal mind
but completely unintimidating. For that
reason, I think a lot of people—at least
when she was 25—really underestimated
her. They don’t underestimate her so
The word that keeps popping up in
conversations about Jordan is “relatable.”
“She connects with jurors in a way that is
hard to describe,” Casey says. “She relates
to them. I think it’s just something she was
born with.”
“I think it’s the fact that she grew up
in Dodge County but has spent time
in Atlanta—she relates to people from
every walk of life,” adds former colleague
Bernard S. Brody, a criminal defense
lawyer focusing on sex offense cases. “And
she is utterly unafraid to take on the big
Admitted to the bar in 2001, Jordan
clerked for Judge Anthony A. Alaimo, a
Nixon appointee to the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of Georgia. When
she eventually got out of Dodge, she
landed at Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore in
Atlanta. She drafted trial and appellate
pleadings, took depositions and conducted
document review. It was fine, but defense
She found it at Barnes Law Group in
Marietta—a firm founded by former Gov.
Roy Barnes—where she took on an issue
closer to home: payday lenders.
“I was born at Camp Lejeune, the
daughter of a career Marine,” she says. “I
know that near military bases and in rural
areas, payday lenders really prey on the
quick need for cash. You may need $500
for new tires to get yourself to work, and
suddenly you owe more than $2,000.”
The problem? Most banks are regulated
by the states. If you’re a national bank,
chartered in a different state, you can skirt
Georgia’s usury laws. “This bank in South
Dakota was fronting for all of these payday
lenders in Georgia. What I did was take
on these arbitration agreements, which
kept people from bringing a class action
lawsuit. The law was not really on our
side, so I knew I needed to be creative and
outthink the other side.”
Jordan worked on several of these cases,
many of them resulting in multimillion-
dollar awards to class members victimized
by unfair lending practices; one case even
merited an en banc review before the 11th
Circuit. Her subsequent appellate work has
focused on the enforceability of arbitration
agreements in consumer contracts.
She went on to Pate & Brody, where
she developed a civil plaintiff’s practice,
then to the Bird Law Group, representing
individuals harmed due to negligence,
recklessness or deception. “In our trials
together,” recalls Bill Bird, “she would
always handle voir dire because of her
ability to connect with people.”
Along the way, she married into one
of Georgia’s political aristocracies. Her
husband, Lawton, also an attorney, is
the nephew of Hamilton Jordan, chief of
staff to President Jimmy Carter. Lawton
worked for the Clinton White House and
for Al Gore during the 2000 presidential
campaign. The couple met in law school,
but reconnected at a mixer for the Red
Clay Democrats. “It’s not exactly politically
popular to be progressive in Georgia,”
she deadpans. “We knew we had to stick
together. People always want to know
why I vote the way I do, and it might sound
contradictory, but it’s my Southern Baptist
upbringing. Jesus was all about helping
your neighbor, helping the poor and the
downtrodden, helping those who are
shunned. I took that to heart. That informs
both my politics and my legal practice.”
She and Lawton have a son and a
daughter. “My mama cooked for me,” she
says, “so I make it a point to cook dinner
every night so we all can sit down to eat
as a family. In the South, we express love
through food.”
Her current firm gives her that flexibility.
The four name partners at Shamp Speed
Jordan Woodward met through the
