Mikaila Matt From World Travel to Lowcountry Family Law Attorney

Mikaila Matt spent her childhood crossing borders, absorbing cultures and customs from her father’s military postings around the globe. Today, she sits in an office in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, practicing exclusively in family law and domestic relations for clients in the Lowcountry. The contrast could not be sharper: a woman shaped by constant international movement now anchors her entire career in one of South Carolina’s most rapidly growing coastal communities, according to Collins Family & Estate Law Group, where she works in the Lowcountry offices primarily based in Mount Pleasant.

That tension between a globally mobile upbringing and a hyper-local legal practice defines Matt’s approach to family law. While many attorneys in the Charleston area build practices spanning multiple counties and diverse practice areas, Matt focuses solely on the Lowcountry, representing clients in custody disputes, divorces, visitation arrangements, and adoptions from her Mount Pleasant base. She practices exclusively in family law and domestic relations, a deliberate narrowing that allows her to develop deep expertise rather than spreading herself across unrelated legal fields. Her background informs her drive to develop strategies that champion her clients’ best interests while equipping them with the information required to make sound choices during one of life’s most challenging periods.

A World View Shaped by Constant Motion

Growing up in support of her father’s military career gave Matt insight into different cultures and customs that most South Carolina attorneys never encounter in their lifetimes. After high school, she attended Coe College in Iowa, where she immersed herself deeply in campus and community activities. She took part in the yearly Dance Marathon, provided English tutoring to adults at the Catherine McAuley Center, and volunteered with Kids First Law Center, instructing children about divorce through the Divorce Workshops for Kids.

Top of the Class, Early in the Trenches

Matt relocated to Charleston in 2016 to study at the Charleston School of Law, graduating in the top 15% of her class. Her academic record reads like a checklist of elite credentials: she served as a Senior Fellow for the Legal Research and Writing Department, held the position of Associate Editor-in-Chief of Resolved, and served as Editor-in-Chief of MALABU. Yet for all her academic honors, she began gaining practical experience before she was even licensed as an attorney, clerking for Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services and a local family law firm while still in school.

Before joining Collins Family & Estate Law Group, Matt practiced as a litigation attorney at a boutique law firm in West Ashley, where she represented clients in a comprehensive range of family matters. Her practice covered custody, divorce, visitation, child support, separate support and maintenance, child custody modification, third-party custody, name change, termination of parental rights and adoption. She also served as a private Guardian ad Litem, a court-appointed role that requires investigating family situations and reporting to judges on what arrangements truly serve a child’s best interests in contentious proceedings.

From Courtroom to Classroom and Back

She continues to work closely with Charleston School of Law students today, mentoring through the Law Links program and assisting with bar exam preparation.

Beyond her professional life, she enjoys traveling, trying out new kitchen gadgets, attending yoga classes, and spending time with her fiancé and dog, preserving the adventurous spirit that characterized her childhood in multiple countries.

Matt’s international background helps guide her passion for creating strategies to advocate for the best interests of her clients in Mount Pleasant. While her biography emphasizes the global perspective gained from her military childhood, the firm has not detailed specific cases where cross-cultural experience changed a custody outcome or settlement negotiation.