SAM BYRD

Managing Attorney

I grew up in Chattanooga on Signal Mountain. I attended Red Bank High School and joined the United States Marine Corp upon graduation as an enlisted infantry. After the Marine Corp, I returned to Chattanooga and worked at my father’s law firm. My father, Mitchell Byrd, was a certified family law specialist who handled divorce and child custody cases. With him as my mentor I had big shoes to fill in the family law world. While working for his firm, I got my undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. I went on to get my juris doctorate from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. My goal was to come back and work with my father, but he unexpectedly passed away while I was in my last year of law school. I never got the opportunity to work with him as a lawyer, but I was determined to come back to Chattanooga and start the work that we had planned to do together.

I want to help people going through divorce and child custody to minimize conflict. I have always been drawn to helping children. I believe this is the best way to help kids and make an impact by trying to minimize the conflict that they go through. As an adolescent I had anger issues, and discipline with authority issues. I went to a private school for two years where I got to live out in the woods with other children who also had behavior problems. Many children were at this school through state appointments. These kids were previously in juvenile detention and too much trouble for foster homes. I got to know about my peers, their stories and histories, and events that led them down the path that found them in the middle of the woods with me. I thought that my issues were simple and minor compared to them. Those kids were there because they had suffered immense trauma, dependency, neglect, divorce, constant conflict, and instability. Many children were acting out as a response to that conflict. They did not have any safe harbor to turn to, so instead they would turn to drug use, abusing siblings, or abusing other kids in foster care. Since this experience, I have always had a heart for helping kids avoid that situation. I believe the best way I can do that is by helping parents realize the trauma that their conflict can cause for their kids, and the cycle of dysfunction it creates. It’s a generational cycle that sometimes never recovers. My goal is to try and minimize that conflict, manage that conflict, and put the kids in the best position to recover and end the cycle of dysfunction. That is why I do what I do. There are only so many people I can help on my own, so I am growing this firm and putting together a team with a similar mindset and skills so that I can help more people.

I do what I do because I want to help as many people as I can, and this is the best opportunity to do that. I have worked to build a firm that specializes in family law where all our attention is focused on helping people with interpersonal problems that become legal problems. I want to help clients avoid court, manage conflict, and reduce the trauma to their kids.

I have personal experience with family law through my two divorces. Today I am happily married, and a parent to my stepdaughter whom I have been involved with for most of her life. I love my girls and I practice what I preach. I have personal experience and knowledge of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to co-parenting. I can help advise people on what can be accomplished and what cannot. Not every problem can be fixed through the courts system. Sometimes your fight is not with your co-parent, there may be another creative approach. I have hands-on knowledge of building a co-parenting relationship of mutual respect, trust, and flexibility that I think everybody aspires to. It’s not perfect. At times we have disagreements, and we don’t see eye to eye, but we are clear on the vision of what we want for our daughter and what we don’t want for her. We use this goal to guide all of our other decisions and conversations. I read constantly about how to have a good co-parenting relationship and I apply that in my life. Relational aspect psychology and interpersonal skills help me in my knowledge of the law to guide my clients in managing conflict.

In a time where it feels like you have no control, I want to give people the ability to take back control and power. I resolve issues in a way that solves more problems than creates. I value being able to help people resolve problems to move forward and get to a better place. The opportunity for a shift in perspective and see things in a different light can change everything. I like to be able to guide, advise, and put people on a path to a better future to do right by their kids.