Earl Porter is an associate in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group. He focuses his practice on health and welfare, executive compensation, and qualified plans. Earl applies the military decision-making concepts of planning, personnel management, and risk mitigation to every aspect of his work for clients.
Before joining Alston & Bird, Earl served more than 10 years as an infantry officer, including seven years in the U.S. Army, and more than three years in the Georgia Army National Guard. In this role, his experiences ranged from commanding conventional and reconnaissance operational teams on overseas deployments to serving as an instructor and operational officer for the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course, the 19-week precursor to the Army Ranger School. He began his military career after becoming a Distinguished Military Graduate as the nationally ranked number one cadet (out of more than 5,000 officers).
Earl received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law, where he interned for three years at a commercial title insurance law firm and served Emory Law as a teaching assistant for Advanced Legal Writing and as a coordinator for its mandatory advocacy training program. He received his B.S. from the University of North Georgia, graduating summa cum laude. He also served an externship with the Internal Revenue Service and interned with the Georgia State Judge Advocate Group.