A graduate of Vanderbilt University and Emory University School of Law and a former U.S. Army officer, Bill Ordway is a founding partner in ORDWAY LAW GROUP, LLC. For the past 19 years, he has aggressively and compassionately represented clients in family law, divorce, custody, and support matters. He is an instructor at the Emory Law School trial advocacy program and also has extensive experience in business litigation.

For the past several years, and again in 2012, Mr. Ordway has been named by Atlanta Magazine as a "Georgia Super Lawyer." His selection was based upon peer evaluations from other lawyers and judges throughout the state. He holds a "Superb" rating from attorney rating service AVVO, its highest rating. He is currently ranked in the top 5% of family law attorneys in the state of Georgia.

Bill Ordway has represented several high profile clients.  He and his clients have been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, WSB-TV and WXIA-TV in Atlanta, and WLS-TV in Chicago. He is admitted to practice before the Georgia Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and United States District Court of the Northern District of Georgia. He is also an active member of the American, Georgia, and Atlanta Bar Associations, and of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta. He and his wife, Joy, a writer, live in Atlanta.

Austin Buerlein is a native of Richmond, Virginia. He has been continuously employed in the legal profession since moving to Atlanta after college in 2001, and is currently licensed to practice in all State courts, including the Court of Appeals of Georgia and the Supreme Court of Georgia, as well as the Federal Court in the Northern District of Georgia.

His practice has concentrated primarily in the area of Family Law, where he has successfully represented numerous clients in divorce, child custody, modification and contempt actions. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia Family Law Section, as well as the YLD Family Law Section, and has been a featured author in the area of family law in various publications, including “The Family Law Review,” “The Annual Family Law CLE Handbook,” and “The Gwinnett Bar Association Newsletter,” among others.

Austin has also successfully represented clients in various civil and corporate litigation cases, including contractual disputes, among others. 

Prior to working for the ORDWAY LAW GROUP, Austin was an attorney for the law firm Margaret Gettle Washburn, P.C., where he concentrated in Divorce and Family Law. His experience also includes working as a Summer Associate for Bank of America’s in-house legal department, a legal assistant in the family law group at Lawler, Tanner, Zitron & Pachman, P.C., and an assistant in the business development area at Troutman Sanders.

Through his educational, professional and life experiences, Austin has developed skills to assist your legal needs and assist you at each step of the way with your legal issues.

“Cherie” Watts, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, brings a unique blend of education, professional experience, and people skills to the practice of Family Law. An alumnus of Stone Mountain High School and DeKalb College, Cherie and her husband Tim have been married for over thirty years and currently reside in Dacula, Georgia. She is the mother of four grown children and has one grandchild. Having been a former secretary and office manager, as well as having been a small business owner for many years, Cherie appreciates the value of positive client relationships and promotes a warm, friendly environment within our offices, in which our clients are made to feel like “family.”

Ivy White was born in Atlanta, raised in Michigan, and graduated from high school in South Florida. She joined the ranks of the United States Army as a linguist, and attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. First earning her Associate’s of Arts at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, she studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, and later graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. in Spanish Language and International Business. Ivy has always had a passion for law and looks forward to becoming an attorney, herself, in the future.
 

Ivy lives in Powder Springs with her husband and four wonderful children. Outside of work, she loves reading, laughing and spending time with her family.

Joy Helms is a native of Louisiana, and is a graduate of McNeese State University and has done graduate work at the University of Texas.  She is our firm’s certified Divorce Mediator. She is also a social worker and has more than 20 years of experience helping families in crisis. Ms. Helms understands that divorce affects every family member, not just husband and wife, and addresses these challenges in mediation.

Ms. Helms is a former U.S. Navy officer and has lived and travelled all over the world. This experience has proven very beneficial in working with the firm’s diverse clientele.