Name Organization Speaking At
Angela O'Neal
Nextra Solutions
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Austin Crosby
Parker Law Group, LLP
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Derek Tarver
Parker Law Group, LLP
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James Porter
Paul Porter is a employee-side employment law and business litigation lawyer at Cromer, Babb, Porter & Hicks, LLC in Columbia, South Carolina. Paul is from Greenville, South Carolina. He went to college at Presbyterian College (go Blue Hose!) and law school at the University of South Carolina. He is the current chair of the employment law section of the South Carolina Association of Justice. Paul was awarded the young lawyer award by ABOTA in 2016 in recognition of his aptitude as a young trial lawyer and he has been honored as legal elite in employment law and business litigation for both Columbia and Greenville several times. Paul is a certified specialist in South Carolina Employment and Labor Law.Paul became a fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2024. He's a "super lawyer" and also a super good guy.
Paul lives in Columbia with his wife Ashley and dog Snoopy. He loves practicing law, but would rather be skiing, working out, or drinking a cold beer in the warm sun.
Cromer Babb & Porter, LLC
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John Nichols
John Nichols received a BS in mathematics from Francis Marion College in 1978 and a JD from the USC School of Law in 1985. He first worked with Rogers & Koon focusing primarily on property litigation. In 1986, the SC Court of Appeals hired John as a staff attorney, and he became chief staff counsel in 1 993. John also served at times as a law clerk for Chief Judge Alex M. Sanders, Jr., Judge Randall T. Bell, and Acting Judge C. Bruce Littlejohn. From 1996 until 2000, John worked with Suggs & Kelly, primarily on pharmaceutical mass tort litigation around the country. In 2000, John and Marti Bluestein founded Bluestein & Nichols which is now Bluestein Thompson & Sullivan. John's primary focus was on appellate practice, general tort litigation and representing attorneys before the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. In 2017, the Supreme Court of SC appointed John to serve as Disciplinary Counsel and he took over the office in January 2018.
John is admitted to practice in South Carolina's state and federal courts as well as the United States Coutts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit and the Federal Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
From 2003 to 2018, John served on the SC Board of Law Examiners by Supreme Court appointment. In 2012 Governor Nikki Haley appointed John to the SC Commission on Indigent Defense and was reappointed by Governor Henry McMaster. From 2013 to 2017 John served as special counsel to the SC House Ethics Committee and the SC Senate Ethics Committee.
John has spoken at seminars for a number of groups, including the SC Bar, the SC Judicial Branch, SCAJ/SCTLA, the SCIWA, the SCDTAA, the SC Public Defenders Association, and the SC Prosecution Commission. He served on the Education Committee for the ABA's Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys and assisted the SC Judicial Branch in developing orientation seminars for new members of the SC Appellate Court, Circuit Court and Family Court as well as for attorneys employed by the Judicial Branch.
John has also authored, co-authored or edited several books and other publications for the SC Bar or Thomson Reuters (West). From 1995 through 2000, John served as editor of "What's New," the case summaries prepared by law professors for the South Carolina Lawyer magazine (SC Bar). He also served on the South Carolina Lawyer magazine's Editorial Board, serving as Edi tor-in-Chief from 2004 through 2006. John also served as editor of "The Bulletin," the magazine for the SCAJ.
John serves on USC's "B-Ball - Coaches versus Cancer" committee and is an officer with the Columbia USC Tip-Off Club. He enjoys painting, playing guitar, traveling and hiking with his wife, Michelle, and spending time with daughter, Beth, and grandson, Max.
Bluestein Thompson Sullivan LLC
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Lyndey Bryant
Adams and Reese LLP
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M. Cooke
Dawes
Cooke’s practice focuses on complex civil litigation, professional liability
defense, construction defect litigation, products liability litigation and
personal injury litigation. He is also a much sought-after mediator and
arbitrator, and he frequently lectures on the subject of alternative dispute
resolution. He is admitted to the South Carolina Bar and the United States
Supreme Court Bar. Cooke is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
He holds a Martindale-Hubbell Preeminent rating (the highest, formerly called
AV), and is listed in The Best
Lawyers in America
Best
Lawyers has named
Cooke the Mediation Lawyer of the Year, the Arbitration Lawyer of the Year, the
Bet-the-Company Litigator of the Year and the Personal Injury Litigation
Litigator of the Year. Chambers
USA Benchmark Litigation
He
is also regularly listed in Super
Lawyers Charleston Business Magazine Legal
Elite
A
native of Beaufort, South Carolina, Cooke received his undergraduate degree
from the University of Virginia, where he graduated with High Distinction. He
earned his J.D. from the University of South Carolina cum laude , where
he served as Clerk of Court for the Society of Wig and Robe and as Symposium
Editor of the University of South Carolina Law Review. In 1993, he received an
Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from The Citadel, The Military College of South
Carolina. Cooke served as a law clerk for the Honorable Sol Blatt, Jr., U.S.
District Judge for South Carolina and as a governor’s appointee to the South
Carolina Joint Legislative Automobile Insurance Study Committee. He is past
president of the South Carolina Bar, past president of the Charleston Chapter
of the American Board of Trial Advocates, past president of the Charleston
County Bar Association, past president of the James L. Petigru American Inn of
Court, and past chairman of the South Carolina Bar’s Commission on Judicial
Independence and Impartiality.
He
is a member of the Dispute Resolution Section Council and the Professional
Liability Committee of the South Carolina Bar, and a member of the American
College of Trial Lawyers’ Outreach Committee. He has served on the Fourteenth
Judicial Circuit Public Defender selection committee. Cooke is a permanent
member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference and a member of the Federal
Bar Association, Defense Research Institute, the International Association of
Defense Counsel (IADC), and the National Association of College and University
Attorneys.
Cooke
is a founding member and past president of the board of directors of East
Cooper Community Outreach. He is a
member, past president, and past Rotarian of the Year of the East Cooper
Breakfast Rotary Club.
Barnwell Whaley Patterson & Helms, LLC
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Regina Lewis
Regina Hollins Lewis is a member of the Firm and has over 32
years of civil litigation and appellate experience. She focuses her practice
areas of tort defense, representing retailers and insureds in a broad range of
matters, including catastrophic injuries and wrongful death claims, false
arrest and malicious prosecution, third-party security claims, professional
negligence pharmacy claims, and products liability claims. Regina is a
certified mediator and regularly mediates tort and employment matters to resolution.
Regina received her Bachelor of Science degree from the
University of South Carolina in 1984 and her Juris Doctor degree from the
University of Maryland in Baltimore in 1987. After practicing as an associate
in the litigation department of a large Maryland corporate defense law firm and
directing a non-profit legal clinic for abuse victims, Regina was appointed an
Assistant Attorney General for the state of Maryland in 1994.
Regina subsequently relocated back to her home state of South
Carolina and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 2000. She was then
employed as Special Counsel of a large corporate defense firm and thereafter
was elected to membership at the firm. She practiced in the Employment and
Labor and Business Litigation practice groups until she started her own firm
along with two partners in 2007. GaffneyLewis is a certified Women’s Business
Enterprise and is a member of the National Association of Minority and Women
Owned Law Firms as well as the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance.
Regina’s extensive experience has
enabled her to consistently obtain positive results for clients both pre-trial,
through negotiation and settlement and dismissal by motion, and at trial. She
is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest such rating available to any
individual lawyer and representing a legal ability of “very high to
preeminent.” She has been active in the South Carolina Bar, previously serving
in various positions on the Employment Law Section, a member of the Judicial Qualifications
Committee, the Lawyer Image Taskforce. Regina has presented at numerous CLE
sessions sponsored by the Bar. She has been recognized in Legal Elite of the
Midlands, Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America. Regina has served as a
Commissioner on the South Carolina State Ethics Commission and is a Fellow of
the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of the National Academy of
Distinguished Neutrals and a Fellow of the Liberty Fellowship, a statewide
leadership initiative.
Gaffney Lewis LLC
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Roger Young
Roger M.
Young, Sr. the son of the late Rev. James W. Young and Joyce L. Young. He grew
up in North Charleston, and in 1980 graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree
from the Baptist College at Charleston, which is now known as Charleston
Southern University. He graduated from the University of South Carolina School
of Law in 1983 with the degree of Juris Doctor, and with the degree of Master
of Judicial Studies from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2000.
While in
private practice, Judge Young also served as a Municipal Judge for the City of
North Charleston from 1988-90. He was elected to the South Carolina House of
Representatives in 1990 and served two terms. He was Master-in-Equity for
Charleston County from 1996 until July 1, 2003, when he became a Circuit Court Judge
for the 9 th Judicial Circuit of South Carolina. He has also served
concurrently as a Business Court Judge for SC since it was created in 2007 and
is Chief Administrative Judge of the South Carolina Business Court.
He was
President of the South Carolina Circuit Court Judges Association from 2012-14.
S.C. Circuit Court
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Roger Young
Motley Rice, LLC
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Theile McVey
Theile B. McVey is managing partner at Kassel McVey, a personal injury law firm based in Columbia, SC. McVey has dedicated her career solely to representing plaintiffs.
Theile McVey studied at Columbia College and graduated with honors in 1997, then graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 2000. She briefly returned to her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina to practice law, but decided soon after to return to Columbia to practice law with John Kassel.
Theile partnered with John to form Kassel McVey, a personal injury litigation firm dedicated solely to representing plaintiffs - individuals and their loved ones injured or killed due to the negligence of others. She has tried many cases to verdict, including mesothelioma cases, three of which involved verdicts of $38,000,000 and $14,000,000 and $5,125,000.
Theile has received numerous awards and accolades from various organizations and legal bodies such as South Carolina Super Lawyer (2013 to 2019); Midlands Legal Elite in Personal Injury (2011 to 2019); 2017 Gold Compleat Lawyer Award from USC School of Law (the highest award given to alumnae of the school). She was also elected a member of ABOTA and the International Society of Barristers, both invite-only organizations of top trial lawyers
Theile was recently finished serving as President of the The South Carolina Association for Justice (SCAJ), the state's leading trial lawyer association. She now serves as Immediate Past President. She previously served as the association's Secretary/Treasurer, Vice President, and President-Elect.
Kassel McVey
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