Attorney Willie Gary Paying $28,000 a Month in Child Support

Child support payments of $28,000 a month.

That’s what high profile attorney Willie Gary is paying his former lover Diana Gowins monthly.

Damn, that’s a lot of money

Well it wasn’t always that way. In the beginning he was giving her $28,000 a month. But then he started getting an inkling she wasn’t using this money just for taking care of the twins they had together.  According to the court documents, it turns out Diana wasn’t putting the money into the two kid’s college fund like she promised! She was splurging the money on cruises without the kids, tummy tucks, a Steinway piano, and designer clothes. She also spent thousands on private school tuition and diamonds for her oldest child, a teenage daughter from a previous relationship. Yes, diamonds.

Willie Gary got pissed

So what happened next was that Willie Gary, along with his lawyers, argued in November of 2005 to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Wright that Diana Gowins was misusing the child support to pay for things not directly related to the well being of their children together. I mean, seriously, tummy tucks and cruises? I’d be pissed off too!

They ended up winning the case and his child support payments were reduced to more modest $5000 a month, leaving Diana with presumably only one cruise every two months, instead of weekly. The judge then told Gowins, a former nurse, to go back to work and quit going crazy with her lavish spending but she refused to do so. She responded to the judge that she has a right to be a stay-at-home mom.

After a little bit, it seemed Diana didn’t like her bimonthly cruises and wanted them back up to a weekly schedule. So Diana Gowins took Willie Gary back to court to contest the reduction in child support payments.

Georgia Court of Appeals rejects the reduction

The Georgia Court of Appeals decides to side with the mother, Diana, thereby throwing out the previous ruling by Judge Cynthia Wright. The child support payments have now been re-raised to $28,000 a month.

“It’s a big decision,” said Diana Gowins’ attorney, Randy Kessler. After reading a copy of the ruling by the appellate court he faxed a letter to Willie Gary that afternoon with a demand for $300,000 immediately in order to catch up with the difference from the time that Willie was only paying $5000 a month. After this, Kessler expects Willie to resume the regular monthly payments of $28,000.

Willie Gary makes a salary of  about $13,000,000 (that’s 13 million) a year, so according to Diana Gowin’s lawyer, the child support payments of $28,000 are comparable to a man earning an annual salary of $130,000 paying $280 a month for their twins.

“He agreed to it,” says Diana’s lawyer Randy Kessler. “He can afford it. He can’t just change his mind.”

Willie Gary taking it to the Georgia Supreme Court

The plot thickens. Willie Gary and his Atlanta attorney, Kenny Schatten, are now planning on appealing the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court.

“I just look at this decision [by the appellate court] as a small hurdle,” he said.

$28 thousand a month in child support isn’t chump change, even for the $13 million dollar man Willie Gary.

Willie Gary Interview About Being a Lawyer and Law School

From TopBlacks:

TB: When you came back to Florida why did you start your own firm, rather than join for an existing law firm?

Willie Gary: I was the first African American to start a law practice in Florida. There were other firms that wanted to hire me, and I really genuinely felt that they did, however, they wouldn’t do it because they basically thought they would lose their clients because I was Black. So, I had no choice. I had to hang out my shingle and thank God I did.

TB: How did it feel to win your first case?

WG: It was unbelievable because I was young and energetic. The first time I was in the courtroom I won a $250,000 verdict up in middle Florida which is an area where you know, the home of the clans. I went up there in tough country representing a Black man in a wrongful death case. I had an all White jury, and we got $250,000 verdict. It felt good. It assured me that I was in the right profession, the law was my niche and I could file good lawsuits. That’s what I do and I love it!

TB: Well, you really get around! Tell us about you private jet, The Wings of Justice. Is it really necessary and how does it add to the bottom line of the firm?

WG: You can ask about 150 people that depend on a check every 2 weeks whether or not we could do what we do without that ability to fly from state to state. We work out of 45 states. The days of the horse and buggy type transportation are over. If I had to sit in airports, being subjected to cancelled flights, there is no way this firm could be as efficient as it is.

TB: Now that your firm is so busy. How do you keep up with the demand? Are there times that you turn away business?

WG: No, we have a commercial law department, a medical malpractice department [and other departments]. We have good people. We’ve got a bunch of good lawyers and a good staff. We have about 50 plus telephone lines, we have intake people to take the calls, we have committees to evaluate the cases and we move them. You know, people want results and if you can do that the business will come. We get a lot of cases that we don’t take. Not so much because we are so busy, but because we don’t feel the case warrants our involvement. We are not going to get on a case that does not have merit to it.

TB: Many of our readers have heard about the high profile cases you are involved in, however, what case did you work on that was personally very satisfying, but did not come with a multi-million dollar settlement, which seems to be the norm for your firm?

WG: Well you know, I’ve worked a lot of cases where there was no reward, or sometimes they do not go to court. I’ll never forget it, my first case that I got a lot of pride out of was representing an old lady who had a problem with a light bill and I took on that case. She thought that they charged her about $15 too much, maybe not even that much. I wrote letters and I negotiated the bill, of course this was 20 plus years ago, and to this day the smile on that lady’s face when I was able to correct the bill and she stood up to the utility company and she won because they backed off and they straightened the bill out. I have quite a few stories like that where it’s not a lot of money, but you get the satisfaction out of those cases. You know you’ve helped somebody; you’ve made a difference. It’s not about the money; it’s about the results.

TB: How important is education in your profession?

WG: I don’t think that I can really describe the importance of education. It’s a must. There’s not doubt that you cannot make it without it, forget it, you aren’t going anywhere without an education. I speak to kids everyday and tell them to stay in school, study hard and be the best that you can be, because if you want to be successful it all starts with a good foundation – get you a good education.

TB: For a young person debating whether to attend college or just find a job, what advise would you give them?

WG: Follow your dreams, but people who can get an education, get it. Go to college, take that time and do it. It is a good experience. It’s beyond just “getting an education”. You make friends, contacts and the experience is invaluable and you prepare yourself for the future in the process. I would say that if you’ve got a choice, go to college, there is no doubt about it.

Experienced Lawyer vs Law Student on Willie Gary and Dickie Scruggs

From Legal Underground:

Exp. Lawyer: So, kid. What’s the topic today? Trial lawyers?

Law Student: Willie Gary and Dickie Scruggs. I see you didn’t bring your cigars today.

Exp. Lawyer: I gave them up. New Years and all that. So, Willie Gary and Dickie Scruggs. Two rich trial lawyers. If that’s the topic, kid, I’ll put it to you straight–I can’t stand the bastards.

Law Student: Really? One of my professors said they’re creative and daring legal thinkers.

Exp. Lawyer: You believe your law professors? Kid, you are wet behind the ears. The problem with Willie Gary and Dickie Scruggs—or any other successful trial lawyer, for that matter—is that they’re from the wrong side of the tracks. There’s an upper crust in this country, kid, and it’s there for a good reason. Guys like Willie Gary and Dickie Scruggs don’t belong. They’re from dirt-poor families, both of them. Of course, they’ve gone on to become gazillionaires. But reason backwards, kid. If the poor folks are striking it rich, it must be way too easy to make money as a trial lawyer. The system’s broken and it needs to be fixed.

Law Student: You mean tort reform.

Exp. Lawyer: Exactly, kid. You know where Willie Gary and Dickie Scruggs went to law school?

Law Student: Where?

Exp. Lawyer: I guarantee you it wasn’t Harvard or Yale.

Law Student: And that proves what?

Exp. Lawyer: Don’t get smart with me, kid. It proves my point.

Law student: Is it possible that you’re just envious of their wealth and success?

Exp. Lawyer: Envious? Hell no. Kid, I’m embarrassed. And frankly, I need a cigar. I’ll blow the smoke the other way. Let me put it to you this way: those two bozos with all their money make the rest of us lawyers look bad.

Law Student: Just because of their money?

Exp. Lawyer: You just don’t get it, do you, kid? It’s all about the money. That’s why the tort reformers are such geniuses. I’ll make it simple for you. Take Joe Sixpack—that is, your typical overweight, football-loving, beer-drinking semi-illiterate moron. There are two kinds of people in this world who Joe Sixpack doesn’t like—one, rich people and two, lawyers. Put them together and Joe Sixpack really blows a fuse, especially when you tell him that underneath it all, the trial lawyers are really nothing but big boobs like he is. It works, kid. You take a couple of lawyers like Gary and Scruggs and you hold them up to public scrutiny—talk about them in newspapers, remind people how rich they are like it’s some sort of secret, call them “greedy.” Then tell Joe Sixpack that there’s only one way to stop them, and that’s with tort reform. Genius, huh? At that point, Joe Sixpack is so mad that he’d cut off his own arm to stop the trial lawyers. Let me tell you, kid. It works.

Law Student: Even though it’s Joe Sixpack, as you put it, who stands to lose the most from tort reform?

Exp. Lawyer: That’s exactly why the “make ‘em hate them” strategy is so brilliant! But don’t get all uptight about it, kid. Didn’t they teach you in college that the end justifies the means? The end is tort reform. Besides, until these boobs like Willie Gray and Dickie Scruggs have been admitted to the country clubs like the one my father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather all belonged to—and that’s never going to happen, believe me—the greedy trial lawyers have no business making dime one in the legal business.

Law Student: But without them, who’s going to represent their clients—Joe Sixpack, say, the guy who’s been injured or defrauded and needs to take on the big corporations? Whose going to represent the little guy?

Exp. Lawyer: The little guy? You bleeding hearts really crack me up. Who cares who’s going to represent the little guy? Certain people just don’t matter as much as others. Do you understand what I’m saying? Now, about the rest of the afternoon. Ready for a drink?

Law Student: Sorry, but I’ve got some reading to do. Have a couple for me and I’ll catch you next time.