Monica K. Gilroy

A founding principal of The Gilroy Firm LLC, Ms. Gilroy is the firm’s managing partner and has 31 years of experience as a practicing trial attorney, specializing in real estate litigation. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and a J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law. In addition, Ms. Gilroy attended the Ealing College of Higher Education in a study abroad program.

Ms. Gilroy began her legal career in a general practice, in which she honed her civil litigation trial skills. She transitioned to a position as an associate in a fiduciary law boutique, handling trust and estate and real estate litigation for major banks across the United States.
In April 2007, Ms. Gilroy formed her current firm. At the time of its creation, the firm was the largest woman owned law firm in the Southeast. The firm is a certified Woman Owned Business by the WBENC.

Ms. Gilroy is an active trial attorney as the focus of her national litigation practice includes all aspects of real estate litigation, including property management issues, title insurance defense, lender liability defense, creditors’ rights litigation, fair housing, foreclosure and title disputes, regulatory compliance, broker and agent liability defense, mortgage fraud-related litigation and civil and commercial contract disputes. She also leads the Default Department providing national foreclosure, bankruptcy, and loss mitigation and eviction services.

During her career, Ms. Gilroy has served as the litigation liaison for leading lending institutions as well as managed their national bankruptcy litigation program. She continues to serve as counsel for many national and local banks, mortgage companies and real estate industry lenders and leaders. She regularly assists closing attorneys, real estate agents, property managers, title companies and brokers when title or other contract issues arise. She serves regularly as a Special Master in Fulton County. Ms. Gilroy has extensive lead counsel trial experience and frequently appears in all of the state and federal courts of Georgia, including the state and federal appellate courts serving as lead Appellate Counsel. She is also a member in good standing with the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Gilroy has conducted hundreds of jury trials, bench trials, arbitrations and mediations and has regularly argued dispositive motions of all kinds. Ms. Gilroy has been qualified as an expert in numerous trials and actions to provide litigation and real estate testimony. She is regularly interviewed and serves as an expert on real estate, title, foreclosure law and eviction for local and national print, television and electronic media.
Ms. Gilroy has served as a standard of care expert and subject matter expert over a dozen times in her 30 year career, via affidavit, deposition, trial and hearing testimony in a variety of litigation and real estate related lawsuits and disputes. She is often called upon to serve in legal malpractice defense matters to refute currently existing expert testimony.

Ms. Gilroy has a niche expertise in the realm of probate and estate litigation, having served as national outside litigation counsel for NationsBank (now Bank of American) when NationsBank was named as a Trustee, in the early part of her career. Ms. Gilroy worked closely with industry experts in her practice, gaining familiarity with the inner workings of will and trust contests, undue influence cases, illegal purpose trust litigation and other probate related matters. For many years she was called upon to teach and train attorneys in the intersection of probate law and real estate title work.

For the last 25 years, Ms. Gilroy is a nationally recognized subject matter expert in all aspects of Residential Single Family Property Management. She has conducted numerous interviews with various HUD secretaries and enjoys a regular working relationship with the Director of Claims for Fair Housing at HUD. She is the General Counsel for the Atlanta Chapter of the National Association of Residential Property managers (NARPM), the largest NARPM branch and serves as NARPM’s national outside counsel. She is a frequent speaker and educator on all aspects of Single Family Property Management.

Ms. Gilroy is a past Chair of the Real Property Law Section (“RPLS”) of the State Bar of Georgia, which is the largest section of the state bar with over 3000 members. She was the youngest Chair to serve and only one of a handful of women to serve in this role. In May 2015, Ms. Gilroy led RPLS members in a three day education summit she solely coordinated. She previously served as the Editor of the RPLS Newsletter for 4 years. A long-standing member of the State Bar of Georgia, she was appointed by the last 8 Presidents of the State Bar to serve on the Programs Committee. Her service to the State Bar as a part of the RPLS leadership spanned over a decade.

Ms. Gilroy is a frequent and popular speaker on the state and national level on all issues relating to real estate, title claims, title insurance, property management, fair housing and litigation. She speaks and teaches on a regular basis at the state and national level to attorneys, real estate professionals, property managers, and real estate brokers and agents on litigation and real estate related topics. She thrives on educating others. In addition to the numerous articles, papers and publications over her career, she is a contributing writer to Foreclosure Law and Related Remedies: a State-by-State Digest which is published by the American Bar Association. She was published by Thompson Reuters in the book, “Inside the Minds: Mortgage and Finance Fraud Litigation Strategies, 2015 ed.”. In 2019, Ms. Gilroy was selected to conduct and interview Assistant United States Secretary of HUD for Fair Housing, Anna Maria Farias, at a property management industry event, to discuss and debate Fair Housing trends.

Since 2014, Ms. Gilroy has served on the American Land Title Association (ALTA) National Education Committee, and is one of only a dozen members who write the curriculum and training materials for new members to the title insurance and title industry. Recently, Ms. Gilroy drafted the Professionalism and Ethics course for ALTA. She serves on the Title Counsel subcommittee where she educates other senior members of the title insurance industry on national legal cases and trends. She has drafted numerous Amicus Briefs on behalf of ALTA for cases pending in the Georgia Appellate Courts regarding title insurance. She was recently appointed as only one of handful of practicing attorneys in the title industry to serve on the Title Counsel Committee for ALTA, as well as her appointment to the Title Action Network Committee and Marijuana/Title Work Group. She is also an active member of the American Bar Association Title and Insurance Practice Title Insurance Litigation Subcommittee.

In 2021, Ms. Gilroy received the prestigious National Title Professional designation from the American Land Title Association, a designation reserved for only the highest professionals in the land title industry who demonstrate the knowledge, experience, and dedication essential to the safe and efficient transfer of real property.

Since 2021, Ms. Gilroy was named the National Chairperson of the Title Action Network for ALTA, working across the Country to promote advocacy measures at the state, local and Federal level for the land title industry. This Chairmanship has placed her lobbying on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. as well as under many Gold Domes across the country.

Ms. Gilroy enjoys membership with the Lawyers Club of Atlanta, the Georgia Women’s Lawyers Association, Georgia Mortgage Bankers Association, the Atlanta Realtors Association, National Association of Residential Property Managers, National Association of Realtors and the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. Ms. Gilroy holds an AV-peer preeminent review rating with Martindale Hubbell. She is a peer nominated Georgia Super Lawyer for over 10 years in the practice area of real estate. In 2017, Ms. Gilroy was named one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Georgia.

She has been a volunteer for the Fulton County Public School System for over 12 years. For the last five years, she has served as the volunteer attorney coach for the Johns Creek High School Mock Trial Team, who achieved a top ten statewide ranking under Ms. Gilroy’s direction. In 2022, Ms. Gilroy was awarded the Attorney Coach of the Year Award from the Georgia State Bar Mock Trial Program. Ms. Gilroy is a longtime volunteer for the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, serving as a group leader, treasurer and teen mentor. She is also an active volunteer educator in her church in Johns Creek, Georgia regularly teaching both elementary and middle school students. She resides in Johns Creek, Georgia with her family.

*AV®, AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished and Martindale-Hubbell Notable are certification marks used under license in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies. Martindale-Hubbell® is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the anonymous opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Rating™ fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.