Melissa Lanice Middleton

When going through a contentious divorce, dealing with post-divorce matters like child custody or support, or facing issues related to your professional licensure in Indiana, you need an experienced attorney who will take your problems seriously, and do everything in her power to protect you and your livelihood. This is precisely why clients choose to retain the services of lawyer Melissa Middleton. She combines empathy and experience when handling highly emotional and complex family law matters, and aggressively employs effective legal strategies when working to protect her client’s Indiana professional licenses.

Once Protecting Children, Now Protecting Families: Melissa Middleton, Indiana Family Law Attorney

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Melissa is a proud member of the Choctaw Nation. She learned early on in life that achieving one’s goals required resilience and hard work. She brought that same mindset with her to the University of Oklahoma, and later, to law school at the University of Oklahoma, where she was an editor at the American Indian Law Review.

After obtaining her J.D. in 2007, Melissa spent two years in private practice in Oklahoma City. In 2009, she began working as an attorney for the Choctaw Legal Assistance for Victims Program and was made Director of the program in 2011. Three years later, in 2014, Melissa began work as the Director and Lead Attorney for the Indian Child Welfare program, where she was responsible for delivering direct legal services to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, representing the Nation in tribal, state, and/or federal courts.

In 2019, Melissa, alongside her husband and daughter, moved to the Indianapolis area and opened a private practice where she provided Indian Child Welfare consulting to clients across the country. Prior to joining Keffer Hirschauer LLP in 2022, Melissa gained invaluable experience handling Indiana family law cases, including adoption and child custody-related matters, with the Indianapolis-based Hanley Law Group.