Fifty years ago this month, Tom Carlock took his Emory Law degree and joined the State Bar of Georgia, launching a career that would eventually see him atop one of the state’s premier litigation firms.

Now known as Carlock, Copeland & Stair, the firm Carlock and four colleagues formed in 1970 is renowned as a defense-heavy powerhouse with about 80 lawyers. Along the way, Carlock has handled more than 500 jury trials, including more than 225 wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases.