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Persuasive litigator Aaron Wallace works diligently to represent his client’s interests. He analyzes the facts of each case to advocate on his client’s behalf and enjoys finding creative solutions to complex problems.

Before joining Hedrick Gardner, Aaron practiced at another Columbia, SC firm practicing labor and employment law, criminal law, and personal injury litigation. During law school, he served as treasurer for the Black Law Students Association. He also participated in the Judicial Observation and Experience program and worked as a law clerk for a plaintiff’s law firm. Aaron later completed a clerkship for the Honorable DeAndrea G. Benjamin, Circuit Court Judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit.

Aaron values community involvement. He is involved in the North Columbia Business Association where he served as marketing director for several years. He also served the South Carolina Black Lawyers Association as a member of the executive committee and as marketing chairman and webmaster. He is a Cub Scout Scoutmaster and has coached little league basketball and baseball. A member of St. John Baptist Church, he teaches Sunday School and Children’s Church. When not serving his community, Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife and their four children.

Ashley Falls is an employment attorney with Falls Legal in Charleston where she focuses on representing plaintiffs in a wide variety of employment matters, including class and collective action litigation for wage and hour violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and the South Carolina Payment of Wages Act ("SCPWA"). Ashley has served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in many complex class and collective actions, including serving as lead counsel in one of South Carolina's largest restaurant related FLSA tip credit cases that resulted in a cash recovery of $2.7 million dollars for more than 3,500 servers and bartenders across the country. She has also successfully handled FLSA cases before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and before arbitral panels.

Ashley began her career working for the federal government for six years where she drafted more than 1,000 appeal level decisions on behalf of federal administrative law judges in Social Security disability hearing cases. She earned both her Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master's degree in Public Administration from the College of Charleston and her law degree from the Charleston School of Law where she was the recipient of the CALI Award in Advanced Legal Writing. 

Ashley is an active member of the National Employment Lawyers Association ("NELA"), the nation's largest organization composed of plaintiff side employment lawyers, and serves on both the National Planning Committees for the Wage & Hour division and the Amicus Brief division. She is also a member of the South Carolina Bar Employment and Labor Law Section and the Charleston County Bar Association. Ashley regularly contributes to various online and print legal publications specific to the employment and labor law field and her writings have appeared in Law 360, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly, and the South Carolina Bar Employment Newsletter. She has been named a South Carolina "Rising Star" in employment law from 2016-2021 and her law firm was recently selected to the U.S. News & World Report "Best Law Firms" rankings for Labor & Employment Litigation. 
 

Grainger Pierce is a partner at Van Hoy, Reutlinger, Adams & Pierce in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University, where he studied art history, classics, and psychology. Following his graduation from law school at Chapel Hill, Grainger moved to Charlotte, where he has developed a thriving employment law practice representing employers of all sizes. 

Grainger works with companies on everything from complex litigation to compliance assessment. He has successfully represented clients in all North Carolina state and federal trial courts, as well as before the North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. Grainger is a frequent speaker on employment law issues, and has also served as an instructor for the Duke University and University of North Carolina - Charlotte paralegal programs. In 2012, Grainger was recognized by N.C. Lawyers Weekly in its inaugural group of Leaders in the Law, and he has been listed multiple times in both Super Lawyers and Business North Carolina magazine's Legal Elite.  Outside of work, Grainger is an avid cyclist. 

Hannah Stetson is an Associate Attorney in Turner Padget’s Columbia, South Carolina office, where she is a member of the Workplace Litigation Team.

Her practice focuses on representing employers and management in various litigation, administrative, and counseling matters. She defends employers in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission (SCHAC), and the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW). She frequently counsels employers on best policies and practices to help limit or avoid potential liability.

Hannah is also a member of Turner Paget’s statewide professional license defense team, where she defends professionals in disciplinary matters before various professional licensing boards regulated by the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. When a complaint is initiated against your professional license, there are multiple collateral issues to consider including: current and future employment, the impact of the current allegation upon your ability to advance your education and your career, potential or pending criminal charges, even questions concerning fitness for practice. Failing to consider and prepare for collateral concerns, or improper timing related to a single issue can have lasting consequences. Hannah and the other members of the Turner Padget professional license defense team understand the importance of a strategic, well-planned defense, and what actions to take before a hearing to ensure that you are well-prepared. Hannah can handle your professional license defense related needs and will strive to protect your right to continued practice.

In addition to her labor and employment and professional licensing defense, Hannah also practices personal injury defense, premises liability defense, and general business and commercial litigation, including drafting and litigating restrictive covenants.

Following law school, Hannah served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable James A. Beaty, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She subsequently served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Margaret B. Seymour in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Her clerkship experiences provide her with a unique perspective of the litigation process that she is able to utilize in defending, advising, and counseling her clients.

• Employee theft of trade secrets
• Enforcement of restrictive covenants, such as covenants not to compete, non-solicitation agreements, and confidentiality agreements
• Employment discrimination pursuant to Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA
• Wage claims pursuant to the FLSA and the SC Payment of Wages Act
• ERISA litigation
• Administrative investigations and enforcement pursuant to OSHA and the NLRA
• State unemployment insurance tax appeals
• Development and implementation of employment policies and employee handbooks

Jason Coker is the USDOL Wage and Hour Division's Assistant District Director for the Charleston, SC Area Office. In this role, Jason supervises Wage and Hour Investigators working across the state and works with employers and stakeholders in the regulated community to resolve issues and ensure compliance with the federal labor laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division.
Jason was previously a Wage and Hour Investigator from 2009 to 2015. Jason earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Auburn University in 2001 and a Juris Doctor degree from Charleston School of Law in 2009.
 

John Merrell is a shareholder in Ogletree's Greenville, South Carolina office. John counsels employers on a range of labor and employment law issues, with a focus on traditional labor law, including unfair labor practice and representation proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, labor arbitrations, and training management on positive employee relations. 

Magistrate Judge Joi Elizabeth Peake is a United States Magistrate Judge in the Middle District of North Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree and Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina in 1994. She received her law degree, with Highest Honors, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998. After law school, Magistrate Judge Peake served as a law clerk for the Honorable James A. Beaty, Jr., United States District Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina. She then practiced law for several years with Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore/Smith Moore Leatherwood, primarily in the areas of litigation, immigration, environmental law, and regulatory compliance. She subsequently returned to work with Judge Beaty during his tenure as Chief District Judge, with responsibility for both civil and criminal matters. Magistrate Judge Peake assumed her current position with the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in February 2012, and is in her tenth year as a United States Magistrate Judge. Locally, she recently served as the President of the Federal Bar Association for the Middle District of North Carolina, and currently serves as the Chair of the Local Civil Rules Committee. Nationally, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Federal Magistrate Judge's Association as the Fourth Circuit Director, and she also serves on the Administrative Office of the Courts Risk and Financial Management Advisory Council.  

Jonathan Wall is a partner with Higgins Benjamin, PLLC, in Greensboro, NC, where he specializes in employment law litigation, including class actions.  He graduated from Duke University and Washington & Lee University School of Law, and was certified as a mediator in 2001.  He has chaired the Labor & Employment Law sections of both the North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, as well being recognized in multiple years by Legal Elite and Super Lawyers.  He has served on Elon University School of Law’s Board of Advisors since the school opened in 2006, and he also currently serves on the Board of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation.   

Karen Spain was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Psychology. After studying abroad in Spain and Ecuador, she taught Spanish at Bishop England High School for a few years before attending Vanderbilt University Law School, where she was a John W. Wade Law Scholar and a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review and Order of the Coif. After law school, Karen clerked for the Honorable R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and then for the Honorable P. Michael Duffy on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Thereafter, she practiced law at the Charleston office of K&L Gates LLP, where she focused on employment law and litigation. In July 2020, Karen returned to the U.S. District Court as a career law clerk to the Honorable Molly H. Cherry.

Melissa Spence is a partner at Butler Snow, LLP in Charleston, South Carolina, where she is a member of the firm’s labor and employment practice group.  Melissa regularly counsels clients on compliance issues and represents employers before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission, and in both state and federal court against lawsuits arising under Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FMLA, and FLSA.

Melissa has been recognized for her exemplary work and commitment to the Charleston community with inclusion in the Charleston Regional Business Journal “Forty under 40” list in 2020. She was also named to Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones to Watch” list for Labor and Employment Law-Management from 2021-2022, a South Carolina Rising Stars honoree from 2016 to 2019, and is a graduate of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce Leadership Charleston Class of 2019.

Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Wofford College and a Juris Doctorate with honors from Charleston School of Law. In her spare time, she serves as general counsel on the Palmetto Society for Human Resource Management board, board member for the Charleston Forum, and is the CLE coordinator for the employment and labor law section for the South Carolina Bar Association. She is also a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel, South Carolina Women Lawyers Association, Young Lawyer Division of South Carolina Bar Association, Charleston County Bar Association and South Carolina Federal Bar Association chapter.

A certified specialist in labor and employment law, Nekki Shutt has been involved in the employment / human resources field for more than 35 years, beginning with her work in the human resources department of a publicly-traded property and casualty insurance company. Nekki eventually became the company’s corporate recruiter, responsible for hiring approximately 225 employees on an annual basis as well as managing its temporary workforce. This is her 29^th year practicing law. 

While Nekki earned her juris doctor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, she worked as a graduate assistant in what is now the Master’s in Human Resources Program at the USC Darla Moore School of Business. She also clerked for the law firm that represented the insurer where she had previously been employed. Since then, Nekki has built on her human resources experience and developed a civil litigation practice with an emphasis on employee benefits (ERISA) and employment law. From 2000 to 2005, she also was an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, teaching a course for third-year law students entitled “Diversity and the Law,” emphasizing social justice issues involving race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, and the poor.  More than six years ago, Nekki, Malissa Burnette, and Kathleen McDaniel founded Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, PA, a progressive law firm with employment law, civil rights, and civil litigation as its focus.  Notably, the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law recently selected their law firm as the recipient of 2024 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Distinguished Service Award. 

                                    Nekki frequently has received professional recognition and honors. She is secretary of the SC Bar’s Board of Governors and in the House of Delegates.  She chaired the SC Bar’s Labor and Employment Section in 2010, and has served on its  executive  committee for 15 plus years.  For the past five years, she has been named “Lawyer of the Year” in ERISA Litigation by peers through Best Lawyers.  She was the 2018 Recipient of the Civic Star Award from the Richland County Bar Association. She was a 2016 honoree by South Carolina Lawyers Weekly for Leadership in the Law. The University of South Carolina School of Law Alumni Association awarded her the James Petigru Compleat Lawyer Award, Silver Medallion in 2005. Her peers have selected her for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2010 to present in the field of labor and employment law. She’s also continuously educates others in her field through her writing and seminar presentations like “Modern Family I and II” on protecting LGBT clients, “Against the Wind: a history of the civil rights movement in South Carolina as told through case law and testimony,” and 10 years of the annual Fundamentals of Employment Law in South Carolina, one of the SC Bar’s Essential Series. Nekki authored the ERISA chapters in the Labor and Employment Law for South Carolina Lawyer 2007, 2011, 2019, and 2024 editions. She also is the author of a chapter on employment law for Paralegal Survival Guide, published by South Carolina Bar Association in 2010. 

Nekki was one of the lead attorneys in Condon v. Haley, the 2014 federal lawsuit which made South Carolina the 35 state to recognize marriage equality in the country.

With more than 20 years of experience, trial lawyer Nikole Setzler Mergo represents some of the world’s largest manufacturers, health care providers and financial institutions, as well as locally-owned North and South Carolina businesses, in both jury and non-jury litigation. Nikole regularly conducts investigations into alleged workplace harassment, discrimination and other misconduct claims for employers across the country. Along with her team, she has the ability to provide rapid and thorough investigation support. In addition, a large part of Nikole’s practice is focused on complex, high stakes litigation, including trade secret litigation for employers. She vigorously defends clients through some of

their most tumultuous times.

Nikole also provides daily employment law advice and counseling to a number of corporate clients on issues involving virtually all aspects of employment law. She regularly represents companies before the District Courts of North and South Carolina and in federal courts across the country, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and South Carolina Human Affairs Commission (SHAC), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and the Department of Employment and

Workforce (DEW).

Nikole works for clients in both South Carolina and North Carolina, defending them in litigation across the country. Her engagements are varied, but she regularly provides advice and counsel on issues including: 

-          - complex commercial litigation

-         -  employment litigation defense

-          - unfair business practices

-          - healthcare employment law

-          - healthcare reimbursement disputes

-         -  class actions/defense

-         -  pharmaceutical pricing defense

-          - federal contractor compliance

Education:

University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1999

University of Virginia, B.A, 1996 in English, with distinction

Nikole is a managing partner in the Columbia office of Nexen Pruet.

Stuart I. Teicher, Esq. is a professional legal educator who focuses on ethics law and writing instruction. A practicing attorney for 30 years, Stuart’s career is now dedicated to helping fellow attorneys survive the practice of law and thrive in the profession. Mr. Teicher teaches seminars, provides in-house training to law firms and legal departments, provides CLE instruction at law firm client events, and also gives keynote speeches at conventions and association meetings.

Stuart helps attorneys get better at what they do (and enjoy the process) through his entertaining and educational CLE “performances”. He speaks, teaches, and writes— Thomson Reuters published his book entitled, Navigating the Legal Ethics of Social Media and Technology.

Thomas M. Colclough currently serves as the District Director of EEOC’s Charlotte District.  Thomas has over 25 years of experience with EEOC investigating charges and complaints of discrimination and leading high-performing teams.  He has served in various leadership positions at EEOC, e.g., Enforcement Supervisor, Local Director, Area Director, Systemic Coordinator, and Deputy District Director.  Only July 21, 2020, Thomas was promoted to the position of District Director.  In this position, he plays a key role in fulfilling the agency’s mission through strategic enforcement management and planning.

A native of North Carolina, Thomas attended Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.  He earned his master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Thomas is also a graduate of the military’s Command and General Staff College and the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Executive Institute. In 2005, Thomas retired from the North Carolina National Guard after 23 years of service (active, reserve, and guard) at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.