Ronald Lamar Hilley II

Mr. Hilley is a third-generation attorney and licensed member, in good standing, of the State Bar of Georgia. After graduating with two BBAs from Georgia State University, he earned his Juris Doctor (JD) from Emory University School of Law -- one of the top 25 law schools in the US. In addition to his JD, Emory awarded him with a Transactional Law Certificate after excelling in legal courses focused on business law and contracts, which directly helps his estate planning clients, especially business owners. Furthermore, he was the Notes and Comments Editor for the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal (EBDJ) -- the only student-run journal of its kind in the country.

Before his career in law, Mr. Hilley was a Level 6 Krav Maga instructor. His time as a teacher has given him the ability to explain complex topics to his clients in an easy to understand manner (i.e. no mysterious legal jargon).

About My Firm

My wife and I are Georgia natives, born and raised. I started Southern Family Estate Planning after seeing my wife, Sarah, lose both of her parents at a young age. She lost her mom at 23 and her dad at 24. Both of her parents were barely in their 50s when they passed.

As you can imagine, this absolutely devastated her, but she didn’t even have time to grieve. Immediately, it fell on her and her brother to start handling the matters of the estate. Her parents completed some minor estate planning before, but it was not enough. This meant during her mom’s final days in hospice, her family tried crisis-planning as a last-minute effort to get their affairs in order. This quickly fell through because her family did not want to spend the last moments with their mom, who could barely move, watching her try to sign dozens of legal documents. It was heart-wrenching.

Barely a year later, she lost her dad suddenly to a stroke (we believe the stress and heartbreak of losing their mom was the cause). This was the same day the family home was finally transferred from her mother’s estate, solely to her father. After her dad passed, a $3000+/month mortgage, the family business, and many other financial liabilities fell onto her and her brother. They are still handling the matters of their parents’ estates to this day (three years later).

After watching my wife go through something I would never wish upon my worst enemies, I knew I needed to open Southern Family Estate Planning. I never want to see another family in my community to go through what she did.

Death can be an uncomfortable topic, which many people avoid. However, it is inevitable and sometimes occurs unexpectedly. As your attorney, I promise to treat you as if you were my own family. As such, my law firm takes on a limited number of clients because we are focused on quality over quantity. I want to make sure you have an estate plan in place that cares for your family, children, loved ones, and assets, so they can focus on more important things, instead of administering the estate and going through the probate process.

I look forward to meeting you and your family, and providing you with peace-of-mind, especially during these times of uncertainty.