Lee A. Summerford is a Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent rated partner in the Tax and Corporate section of the firm. Mr. Summerford concentrates his practice in the areas of business law and estate planning. His business practice includes corporate, partnership and LLC formation, contract preparation and negotiation, sales and acquisitions, buy-sell agreements, and succession planning. His estate planning practice ranges from simple wills to complex tax-motivated estate planning, and he handles all aspects of probate, estate and trust administration. In addition, Mr. Summerford regularly deals with the Internal Revenue Service and State Department of Revenue on estate and income tax issues.
Mr. Summerford handles a number of issues peculiar to physicians and medical practices including shareholder agreements, employment contracts, covenants not to compete, hospital privileges, and state and federal regulatory issues and compliance.
Mr. Summerford attended Mercer University, graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science. Upon earning his undergraduate degree, Lee attended the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University and received his Juris Doctor cum laude in 1996. While at Mercer, he served as Senior Managing Editor of the Mercer Law Review and was a member of the Brainerd Currie Honor Society and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. He was also named the 1996 Tax Scholar by the Georgia Federal Tax Conference.
Mr. Summerford has been included in "Best Lawyers in America" for Trusts and Estates from 2003 through the present including “Lawyer of the Year” for 2016. In addition, Mr. Summerford has been named as first a "Rising Star" and now a “Super Lawyer” by Atlanta Magazine in the area of Closely Held Businesses. He has also been named to Georgia Trend’s “Legal Elite” in the areas of Taxes/Estates/Trusts several times. In 2001, Lee was recognized as one of the top "40 Business Leaders Under 40" in the Savannah Business Report and Journal.
He is admitted to practice before the Georgia state courts, the Georgia Supreme Court, and the United States Tax Court.
Lee is also a family man and is most proud of his wife, Mary Dekle Summerford, who has been a public school history teacher for 28 years, his daughter Katie who is at UGA Law School, and his son Jake who is a college freshman and State and National Champion shotgunner. Lee is an avid outdoorsman and competitive skeet and sporting clays shooter and was named to the 2017 National Sporting Clays Association Georgia All State Team. He has coached his children in many sports over the last 20 years and is very involved in youth shooting in the Savannah area as a founder and director of the Forest City Juniors National Champion youth shooting team and as founding Head Coach of the Varsity Sport Shooting Team at Benedictine Military School. He also serves as Vice President of the Forest City Gun Club in Savannah.
