Member Highlight – Agent: Leslie R. Sadler
Although she was born and raised in Lake Village, Arkansas, Leslie Sadler has called Mississippi home for more than 20 years. She received a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University in 2001 and a law degree from Mississippi College School of Law in 2004. Leslie began her career at an insurance defense firm in Jackson handling mass tort litigation. During this time, she met her future husband and moved to Vicksburg for his job after they married. After commuting from Vicksburg to Jackson for a short time, she sent her resume to every lawyer in Vicksburg with hopes of joining a firm close to home.
When Leslie was hired by Bobby Ellis, whose primary practice was real estate law, she had no experience in this area. Now Ellis, Deas & Sadler, PC, the firm was established in 1967 and has an expansive collection of local title files. Leslie spent her first year or so in her new position working in the Warren County records vault with the firm’s abstractor to learn everything there is to know about title work. Today, Leslie regularly handles residential and commercial real estate transactions. “I do a lot of my own abstracting, which I think is rare these days!” she says. “I love dissecting a title that has issues and figuring out how to cure them.”
Leslie describes herself as a “typical small town lawyer” and handles a variety of work from collections for banks and credit unions to creditor bankruptcy matters to estate administration and planning. She admits that her work sometimes includes “anything that comes in the door, except divorces! I once handled a divorce where the couple was fighting over the Dale Earnhardt memorabilia. Never again.” Her preference, though, is “handling closings for new families that are moving to Vicksburg and sharing with them all the things that I think make Vicksburg great and unique!”
Working in a city with such a rich history, Leslie has had interesting opportunities to contribute to her community. She is currently assisting a battlefield preservation group in its efforts to obtain the land where the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou was fought in Warren County with the goal of including it as part of the Vicksburg National Military Park. Leslie and her husband, Rob Sadler, have two children, Reeves (age 12) and Everett (9). As a mom of active boys, she feels like “any time I have away from work is spent at some sort of youth sporting event.” Leslie is also a member of the Rotary Club of Vicksburg and First Presbyterian Church.