Victor C. Garlock
Partner
To contact Vic, call (828) 357-4510.
Vic began his practice of law upon his admission to the New York Bar in 1992. He made it to Asheville, North Carolina in 1997, took the North Carolina Bar and was admitted in February, 1998. After working for a short time for another attorney in the Asheville area, Vic began his own practice in the fall of 1998. At the same time, Vic also began a personal bookkeeping business he called Daily Money Management, which became Fidelicare, Inc., in 2010.
Vic’s practice areas include estate planning and guardianship law. As the Public Guardian for Buncombe County, North Carolina, the Clerk of Court appoints Vic to serve as Guardian of the Estate for incompetent adults and children. Vic is a member of the Buncombe County Bar and the North Carolina Bar Association. He volunteers with the Pisgah Legal Services Mountain Area Volunteer Lawyer Program to provide wills and powers of attorney to low-income residents of Western North Carolina. He also worked with Pisgah Legal Services to provide a telephone guardianship clinic to help low-income clients needing assistance with guardianship matters.
Vic lives in Asheville with his wife. His daughter has left the nest to find her fortune in California. His son is attending North Carolina State University. When he’s not practicing law or managing Fidelicare and Garlock & McKinney, he enjoys spending time outdoors.
Mariah D. McKinney
Partner
To Contact Mariah Send Her A Message
In 2024, Mariah officially launched the firm’s beach office where she spends most of her time. Although she still takes on clients in the mountains, she now offers legal services in her practice areas to the residents of the Greater Topsail Island, Sneads Ferry and surrounding areas. This allows her to be oceanside soaking in the salt air which is where her heart feels most fulfilled, and to be close to her mom and sister who live in the area. Mariah fell in love with the Topsail area as a young child when her grandparents moved to Surf City, NC. Mariah’s grandparents called Surf City their home for more than 30 years until they passed away many years ago in the place they loved to call home. They were fisherman, more for sport and good eating than for income. They taught Mariah by example what hard work looks like. Both her Nanny Barbara and Pappa Mac McDaniel worked many jobs on the Island together. From the time she was a small child of four years old, Mariah would come visit them as much and stay as long during her visits as her parents would allow. She would “go to work with them” and help them as much as she could at their various workplaces, which included: the Seaview Pier, Barnacle Bills Pier, East Coast Discount, and even the IGA. Her grandparents ended up owning McDaniel’s Laundromat, their own business, which was located where the Bumblebee Market is in Surf City.
Mariah is a North Carolina native, born in Lee County, graduated high school at East Wake in Eastern Wake County, then she attended UNCW to obtain her undergraduate degree in Communication Studies. She received her law degree from North Carolina Central School of Law and was licensed to practice law in 2004.
In her more than 20 years of practice, Mariah has very unique experience as an attorney. Mariah was a probate clerk in both Wake and Buncombe Counties where she audited and approved estate filings, assisted attorneys, and presided over hearings as an “ex officio Judge of Probate” as an extension of the elected Clerk of Court’s authority in those counties. She also served as Assistant Legal Counsel to all the Clerks of Court and their staffs statewide in her practice areas. Mariah confidently says, that “she knows how probate works in this great State!”
Mariah is married to her husband, Tony McKinney, who is originally from Mitchell County. After they were married in 2009, Mariah moved to the mountains to try it as a mountain woman. That is how she met her law partner, Vic and ended up with a law office in Black Mountain with him. Vic and Mariah formed Garlock & McKinney, P.C. in 2016. Now that Tony’s two sons (Mariah’s beloved stepsons) are grown up and have moved out of State, Mariah and Tony are able to spend their time by the sea more these days instead of the mountains.
Mariah is a member of The Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce and ANEW, A Network Empowering Women. She is also a trained Christian Mediator and Conflict Coach. She offers those services through PeacePoint Ministry. You can learn more about PeacePoint at www.peacepoint.com.