Jonathan Pope and his brother Tom, a partner at Hasty Pope, LLP, grew up around the law. Their father, Judge Marion T. Pope, of counsel at the firm and a former chief judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals, had them in courtrooms from the time they were very young. Jon got his first direct experience in law at The Citadel as part of the honor court, the court system of the school. As a pre-law major, he acted as a defense lawyer for a friend.

“I brought in a handwriting expert, and then I recused the chairman of the honor court since he was also the provost who had collected evidence for the case,” Pope said. “That whole experience sealed it for me.”

After The Citadel, Pope earned his law degree from Georgia State University. Since then, he has been named to the National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100 Trial Lawyers in 2013; recognized in Georgia’s Top Rated Lawyers in 2012; included in the 2006, 2009, and 2010 lists of Rising Stars?; recognized by the Super Lawyers® list in 2019 and 2020; and recognized in Georgia Trend’s “Legal Elite” in 2009, 2013, and 2015.But he still wants to do more. “We don’t want to be like everyone else; we want to do it better,” Pope said. “We’re constantly learning, and we want to be on the cutting edge.” Pope said he and his firm are different because of the focus they put on the investigation of their cases and the time they spend helping their clients navigate the legal system.