In 1977, I graduated from the University of South Carolina Law School and, after passing the bar exam that fall, became an assistant public defender in Greenville, South Carolina where I have lived and worked ever since. While at the public defender office, I became the deputy public defender representing juvenile and adult defendants in cases ranging from minor magistrate offenses to death penalty murder trials.
In 1981, I went into private practice. During that year I helped form the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment (CAFÉ), a non-profit organization that helps workers learn about their job rights. CAFÉ has chapters throughout the state and has its headquarters in Hartsville, South Carolina.
Currently, I have a solo practice in Greenville, SC, and serve clients in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson and Pickens counties. My main areas of practice are false arrests, excessive force, employment law, criminal defense law, student rights and family law.
In 2002, I founded Law in Action, a non-profit corporation. We have a board and I function as the CEO and lawyer for the group. LIA is very small, but we have had a big impact particularly in the area of criminal justice as you can read from our history.
We have several current projects, including "One Case at a Time". This project is designed to provide legal help for citizens who don't qualify for help from the Legal Services Agency either because they have a case overload or because their incomes are slightly above the limit for acceptance. LIA believes that for important civil matters it is often hard for working people to pay a retainer to hire a lawyer even when those people have incomes that are too high for free legal help. One Case at a Time tries to bridge that gap in specific cases.