Meet Your Lawyer

Hi, I’m Shelby!

Let me share a little bit about myself:

I live with my family in Jacksonville in a quiet neighborhood. My husband is a successful Sergeant in the Alabama National Guard and works with the Civilian Marksmanship Program during the week. My two-year-old and five-year-old daughters get along.. most of the time. I work in my dream job running my own thriving law firm. I practice my two favorite areas of law: family and criminal defense. Life is good, but it took me a long time and a lot of fighting to get here.

I was born and raised in New Market, Alabama, north of Huntsville. I grew up in a single-income household and received reduced lunch from my first day of Kindergarten through the last day of senior year. My parents worked hard and gave me a memorable childhood with the limited resources we had, but the financial strain was always present.

I received a very generous scholarship to Jacksonville State University and worked throughout my time in college to cover my living expenses. I worked as a high school basketball official, a childcare worker, a dog grooming assistant, a Space Camp counselor, and even interned in the Safety Department at a pipeline company in Cleburne County while in college. I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in 2015 and was accepted into law school to begin that fall.

Steven and I moved to Birmingham after we left JSU, and I began Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in August. In October, we received some surprising and unexpected news - we were going to be parents! The first year of law school is notorious for being the most difficult, and I spent most of it pregnant. The day my daughter was born, I finished an online exam for an Ethics class on a yoga ball in the hospital; later that night, we welcomed our little girl into the world. There is truly no greater motivation to finish law school than having a tiny human to support. I fought to make sure that our girl was given the best life possible.

Law school is three years long. Steven was supporting us through full-time orders with the National Guard. Halfway through my second year in school, the State slashed the Guard’s budget, and Steven lost his job. We were in financial despair. Steven took a job working in a vinyl factory in Birmingham, and I started working at a family law firm in town between classes. We both picked up extra hours stocking at a local mall. It was difficult living paycheck to paycheck, but we made it work - we had to.

In 2018, I graduated from Cumberland School of Law. If you look up any news articles from graduation, you won’t find any “laudes” after my name or awards won while in law school, and I am okay with that. I grew my knowledge base in law school by rolling my sleeves up and working. I was answering phones, drafting motions, meeting with clients, and attending hearings while living in Birmingham. My favorite mentor told me early on that you don’t learn the law by reading about it - you learn the law by practicing it, and I did just that.

I sat for the bar exam right after graduation, and I passed! I found out I passed the test on a Friday morning, and on the following Monday I dropped my daughter off at daycare and began my first day of work as a criminal defense and family law attorney.

My third week of work we received some more unexpected and surprising news - we were having another baby! I spent my first year as a practicing attorney in jails and in the courtroom with a round belly. Our second daughter was born in April 2019.

I practiced for three years as an associate attorney at a well-known law firm in Oxford before resigning and opening my own firm here in Anniston.

I am grateful for the difficulty in my past that led me to where I am today because I empathize with my clients who are going through their most trying times. I can feel their pain. I know firsthand how it feels to wake up every single day fighting to keep your family afloat, and I know the unique stressors that affect parents.

Most importantly though, I am accustomed to doing whatever it takes to get the job done. These days that looks like fighting in a courtroom to obtain a favorable result for my clients rather than stocking shelves overnight.