Event Information

Mr. Rawl is a Partner with Gordon & Rees and has a national litigation practice which includes, among other things,  class action defense and construction law.  Prior to joining Gordon & Rees in 2017, Mr. Rawl was with McNair Law Firm for approximately 20 years, where he was the Chair of their Class Action Practice Group.  Mr. Rawl has substantial class action experience. He has defended class actions in a wide variety of matters, including, but not limited to, construction claims, product liability claims, lender liability claims and claims arising under consumer protection statutes. He has litigated class actions in federal courts, state courts and in arbitration. He has defeated class certification in several matters and obtained summary judgement prior to class certification. He has removed class actions to federal court pursuant to the Class Action Fairness Act, and he has obtained significant opinions from federal appellate courts blocking class claims in arbitration.

Mr. Rawl received his Master of International Business Studies and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of South Carolina in 1995.  He then served as the first judicial law clerk to The Honorable P. Michael Duffy, U. S. District Judge, District of South Carolina, from 1995 until 1997.  Mr. Rawl has been active in the South Carolina Bar Association, including serving as President of the Young Lawyers Division, Serving on the Board of Governors, Serving as a member of the House of Delegates, and serving as Articles Editor for the South Carolina Lawyer.  Mr. Rawl is also active in the American Bar Association where he serves as a member of the House of Delegates and as a member of the Nominating Committee.
 

Judge Bentley D. Price was raised in Conway, South Carolina in 1976. He is the son of Jimmy and Judy Price of Conway, South Carolina. His father is a retired OBGYN and his mother is a retired nurse.

Judge Price attended the public schools of Conway, South Carolina. Upon graduation from high school, he attended Wofford College, where he graduated in 1999 with a B.A. in English. While at Wofford College, he lettered in soccer all four years.

After Wofford College, he attended the Stetson University School of Law and received his Juris Doctor in 2002. After graduating from law school, he worked as an Assistant Solicitor for the 9th Circuit Solicitor's Office. Following leaving the Solicitor's Office he was a partner at Query, Sautter, Price, and Forsythe, LLC. He then started his own private practice, The Bentley Price Law Firm, until being elected to the Bench in 2019. He was also a part-time municipal judge for the City of Folly Beach for twelve years.

Judge Price is a member of the South Carolina Bar and admitted to practice in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, and all South Carolina State Courts. He is also a member of the Charleston County Bar Association.

Judge Price was elected by the South Carolina General Assembly on February 6th, 2019.

Judge Price resides in Charleston and is married with two children.
 

Bryan represents a wide range of general contractors, subcontractors, developers, and surety companies in North and South Carolina. He primarily practices in the areas of construction law and surety claims and disputes. Bryan's experience includes assisting clients with claim avoidance strategies, mechanic's liens, bond claims, payment claims, defect litigation, insurance coverage, scheduling and delay issues, and change order disputes. He is a former Chairman of the Construction Section Council of the South Carolina Bar and has served as a lecturer on a variety of construction topics for legal and industry groups including Carolinas Associated General Contractors. He is a co-author of the South Carolina Construction Law Deskbook, published by the Construction Law Section of the South Carolina Bar, and regularly presents the South Carolina Construction Law Update at the Construction Section's annual meeting.

Bryan is rated "AV" preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell.  He has been named to "The Best Lawyers in America" for Construction Law and Construction Litigation in South Carolina and Lawyer of the Year for Construction Litigation (Greenville) by Best Lawyers.  He has also been recognized among the "Legal Elite" by Greenville Business Magazine for Construction Law.  Bryan holds an undergraduate degree from Wofford College and attended law school at the University of South Carolina.
 

CALEB M. RISER is a shareholder with the law firm of Richardson Plowden & Robinson, P.A., where he focuses his practice on construction law although he also practices in general litigation, professional liability and utility litigation. Mr. Riser is admitted to practice in South Carolina; and before the U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina; U.S. Court of Federal Claims; and U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. He is a member of the South Carolina Bar (Construction Law Section, including its Section Council), American Institute of Architects, Richland County Bar Association, South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association, Defense Research Institute, American Bar Association, and The Jefferson Society, Inc. Mr. Riser earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree, cum laude, from the University of Tennessee; his J.D. degree from Regent University School of Law; and studied abroad at Crakow University of Technology, Crakow, Poland (including award for most outstanding design). He is also a certified document technician (CDT).

In 2000, Judge Clifton Newman was elected to the South Carolina Circuit Court by the South Carolina General Assembly and he has served continuously since. He has served as the Presiding Judge over the Multi-Week Trial Docket for South Carolina, a specialized docket of complex construction and other multi-week cases. He is a Business Court Judge. He has been appointed by the South Carolina Supreme Court to serve as Presiding Judge and as Special Referee in several complex civil and criminal cases.

Judge Newman is a member of the Chief Justice’s Commission on the Profession, the South Carolina Commission on Judicial Conduct and the South Carolina Circuit Court Advisory Committee. He is a past President of the American College of Business Court Judges and he has served as Co-Chair of the Judges Initiative Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association.

Judge Newman is Chairperson of the South Carolina Civil Rules Committee, a member of the South Carolina Judicial Council, and the John Belton O’Neal Inn of Court where he is a member of the mentoring team.

He recently became an Adjunct Professor at the USC School of Law where he teaches Trial Advocacy.

Darah Bolen was born and raised in the heartland of America, Tama, Iowa. She graduated from AIB College of Business in 2007 with a degree in Stenographic Court Reporting. She promptly moved to South Carolina and began work with Clark & Associates under the mentorship of Lynn Clark. She has since become a Registered Professional Reporter and is nationally certified through the National Court Reporters Association. Darah is a highly trained stenographic court reporter able to produce real-time transcripts and rough drafts instantaneously during the deposition proceedings. Since becoming Managing Partner of Clark Bolen in 2021, Darah has taken on the role of expanding the business that Lynn began building in South Carolina over 30 years ago while keeping a focus on providing quality customer service and products for their clients.

Derek A. Hodgin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University. Mr. Hodgin has over twenty-five (25) years of experience as an engineering consultant and expert witness related to a wide variety of construction issues, Mr. Hodgin is licensed as a Professional Engineer in twenty-three (23) states; registered as a Building Envelope Consultant with the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC): and is certified as a Construction Document Technologist and Construction Contract Administrator with the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). A large part of Mr. Hodgin's projects include an analysis of deficient construction including roofs, exterior wall assemblies, windows, doors, structural framing, civil site work and building code review, as well as the repair of deficient structures post litigation. Mr. Hodgin also performs engineering assessments of hurricane, flood, tornado, hail, wind, ice and fire-related damages for a wide variety of commercial and residential structures in the United States and Caribbean.  

Justin O’Toole Lucey is the principal attorney of the Justin O’Toole Lucey, P.A. located in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Justin Lucey enjoys a good professional reputation in the community as a construction and complex transaction litigator.

He has served as Plaintiff’s counsel in dozens of defective construction cases, involving large groups of townhomes, condominium complexes, primary and secondary residences, low-rise and mid-rise buildings, and residential and commercial structures. His firm is reputed to have two of the three largest residential construction settlement recoveries in the state of South Carolina. More recently, the firm received a multi-million dollar construction defect recovery on a nine-story research center building on behalf of the State of South Carolina.

Mr. Lucey has also tried a number of large cases to verdict. In 2006, Mr. Lucey led the recovery of a $4,100,000.00 inverse condemnation verdict against the State of South Carolina. Several years later, Mr. Lucey co-led the recovery of a verdict in the amount of $7,700,000.00, on behalf of his condominium clients, which at the time was one of the largest construction verdicts in the state. In September of 2011, the firm obtained a jury verdict in the amount of $12,500,000.00 on behalf of its townhouse clients, which was once again the largest known construction verdict in the state of South Carolina. The firm served as lead counsel it its most recent 2014 verdict of $55,000,000.00 on behalf of condominium conversion clients, which is the third consecutive construction trial in which the firm has set the record for the largest construction verdict recovery in the state. This verdict is reputed to be one of the largest of any type of verdict in the state.

Mr. Lucey has and currently serves as lead, co-lead, or liaison counsel in numerous class action suits, and has played an active role in multi-district litigation involving defective construction products. Prior class actions have resulted in significant monetary recovery for class members.

Mr. Lucey has spoken on numerous subjects including Trial of Complex Multi-Party Litigation at the 2008 South Carolina Bar Convention; and Tort Reform, the New (non) Joint and Several Liability, and Other Current Trial Issues at the 2009 South Carolina Bar Convention.

Sarah Elizabeth (Wetmore) Butler has been practicing law in Charleston, South Carolina for twenty three years. She is a 1996 graduate of Wake Forest University and a 1999 graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Law. Sarah focuses her practice in the areas of construction litigation, professional liability, premises liability, personal injury defense, and general insurance defense and coverage. Sarah is a Past President of the Charleston Lawyers Club, an organization with more than sixty years of focus on community service and events designed to promote the camaraderie of the local bar. She is also Past President of the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys Association (SCDTAA). Sarah was awarded the South Carolina Leadership in Law Award in 2016, awarded to legal professionals in the Palmetto State who have achieved success in their law practice, made contributions to society and have had an impact on the legal industry. She is a member of the Defense Research Institute, the Claims & Litigation Management Alliance, the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association and is a fellow with the Litigation Counsel of America. Sarah is the South Carolina Chair of the Southeastern Women Litigators Annual Conference, which will hold its third event in 2024 in Nashville, TN. She is AV Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Over the years, Sarah has enjoyed expanding what began as a general liability and insurance defense background to include construction litigation. She enjoys defending general contractors, subcontractors, architects and engineers, and has also had experience assisting insurance carriers with a variety of construction claims issues. A frequent speaker at seminars and events, Sarah has presented on topics such as: Jury Bias, Biomechanical Evidence, Civility in the Practice of Law, Jury Charges, Verdict Forms & Special Interrogatories, Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith, AIA Contracts, Demonstrative Evidence,  Reservations of Rights, Common Construction Coverage Issues, Settlement Agreements, Diversity and Inclusion, Work Life Balance, The Working Woman's Toolkit, Additional Insurance Coverage, A Candid Look At Women in Law, Risk Transfer in Construction Defect Cases. She is looking forward to being part of a panel discussion on Mental Health and Wellness at the upcoming SCDTAA Annual Meeting.

Sarah lives on Folly Beach with her husband, Drew, and their four children. She enjoys live music, travel, reading, boating and just about anything their kids are doing. She is engaged in a Life Coach Certification Program with an accredited institution and is on her way to adding Life Coach to her resume. Sarah recently took up surfing and volunteers with Waves For Women and Surfer's Healing.


 

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.