About Grady E. Carden, Attorney at Law
Big Decisions, Handled in Plain English by the Attorney Who Does the Work
I'm Grady Carden, founder of Carden Legal Services in Columbiana. Whether you are planning ahead, settling a loved one's estate, or building a business, you will work directly with me from the first conversation to the last signature.
You are not here because you want a lawyer.
Nobody wakes up hoping to meet with an attorney. You are here because something matters.
Maybe you have a family and property and no plan for what happens to either.
Maybe someone you love has passed away and a stack of paperwork landed on you along with the grief.
Or maybe you built a business and you know the legal side has been running on luck.
Whatever brought you here, the problem is real, the process is unfamiliar, and the last thing you need is a stiff, awkward meeting where you leave with more questions than you walked in with.
That meeting is the one I set out to eliminate when I opened this practice.
Who You Will Be Working With
I am the founding member of Carden Legal Services, LLC, and the attorney who handles your matter.
You will not be passed to an associate you have never met, and a paralegal will not be the one returning your calls.
My office is in Columbiana, the seat of Shelby County, where the probate court sits.
I work with families and business owners from Columbiana, Alabaster, Pelham, Chelsea, Calera, and across Central Alabama on estate planning, probate and estate administration, and business law.
Grady E. Carden, Esq
I Took a Different Road to the Law, and You Benefit From It
Most attorneys go from college to law school to practice. I did not, and I think that works in your favor.
Six years in the U.S. Navy nuclear power program, aboard a fast attack submarine. On a submarine, procedures are followed exactly, details are checked twice, and nothing is left to chance. That is the standard I bring to a will, a trust, a probate filing, or a contract. Small mistakes in these documents have big consequences, usually for the people you were trying to protect.
A business owner. I have signed the front of a paycheck, made payroll, and lived with the decisions that come with running a company. When a business owner sits across from me, I am not reasoning from a textbook.
Technology and software development. Building systems taught me to think about how the pieces fit together. An estate plan is a system. The will, the power of attorney, the deed, and the beneficiary designations on your accounts all have to agree with each other, or the plan fails at the moment it is needed.
Financial services and consulting. I was previously licensed in securities and life and health insurance (Series 6, Series 63). I understand how retirement accounts, life insurance, and beneficiary designations actually work, and how they interact with your will or trust. That gap is where a lot of estate plans quietly break.
Then I went to law school and graduated cum laude from Faulkner University's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law. Every one of those earlier chapters shows up in how I evaluate your situation and build a plan around your specific goal, not a template.
Why I do this work.
I have been married since 1992, and my wife and I believe in living life to the fullest, because nobody knows how much time they have in the game.
I am reminded of that every day in this practice, because the people I help are facing some of the biggest problems they will ever face: a death in the family, a diagnosis, a business that will not survive its owner without a plan.
That is why I treat your plan with urgency and your meeting with respect for your time. The goal is a plan that is done, signed, and working, so you can get back to living.
What Working With Me Looks Like
One attorney, start to finish. The person you meet is the person who does the work.
A conversation, not a lecture. Meetings are relaxed on purpose. The better I understand your family, your property, and what you are worried about, the better the plan.
Plain English. You will understand every document you sign and why it is there.
Fees explained before work begins. Estate planning and most uncontested probate matters are handled on a flat-fee basis.
Meet the way that works for you. By Google Meet, by phone, or in person by appointment in Columbiana, Alabaster, or Calera.
Tailored to you. Your situation is different from your neighbor's, and your documents should be too.
Credentials
Bar Admissions
State Bar of Alabama
Alabama Court of Civil Appeals
U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Alabama
Education
Faulkner University, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, Juris Doctor, cum laude
American InterContinental University, Bachelor of Business Administration and Management, summa cum laude
U.S. Naval Nuclear Power School
Prior Professional Licensing
Securities: Series 6 and Series 63
Life and Health Insurance
Military Service
U.S. Navy, six years, nuclear power program, fast attack submarine
When I Am Not at the Office
You may find me on the trails training for an ultramarathon, backpacking and camping on a mountainside, kayaking, exploring caves, or hang gliding.
I love adventure and being outdoors, and I plan those trips the same way I plan an estate: carefully, in advance, with a backup for the things that can go wrong.
TESTIMONIALS
What others are saying
READY TO GIVE US A TRY?
Let's talk about what you need.
The first conversation is simple. You tell me what is going on, I tell you what your options are and what they cost, and you decide what comes next. No pressure, no awkward meeting.
Prefer to send us an email?
No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.
Carden Legal Services, LLC serves clients in the following Alabama locations: Birmingham, Alabaster, Helena, Pelham, Jefferson County, Shelby County, Chilton County, Montgomery, Prattville, Millbrook, Wetumpka, Tuskegee, Selma, Troy, Greenville, Autauga County, Montgomery County, Elmore County, Tri-County Region, River Region, Central Alabama, Alabama statewide.