SCLW Power List Commercial & Consumer Litigation 2024

PENNY HAYS CAULEY OWNER

PERSONAL INJURY

HAYS CAULEY FLORENCE

Penny Hays Cauley recalls the day a woman contacted her after the death of her husband. She had discovered dozens of bills and collection letters for accounts he had opened in her name to get money to support his gambling addiction.

“This is when I began learning about federal laws designed to protect consumers,” she says.

As the owner of Hays Cauley in Florence, she has been protecting consumers for 25 years. When people lose hope that an attorney can help them, she enjoys proving them wrong.

Many of her clients’ problems stem from inaccurate credit reporting. Others have been victims of identity theft, and as a result, their ability to buy a house, buy a car rent an apartment, get a job, or simply get a credit card can be taken away.

WILLIAM A. COATES SHAREHOLDER

Beginning his career as an assistant U.S. attorney, Bill Coates delved into litigation, but when he transitioned into private practice, his caseload encompassed commercial litigation and criminal cases.

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HEALTHCARE

“Your good name is represented by your credit report, and that is worth everything,” she says. “My job is to restore your good name and recover damages to cover the harm you were caused.”

T H E

Today, Coates is a shareholder at Cassidy Coates Price, where his practice encompasses commercial and corporate litigation, financial, real estate, health care law, and environmental litigation. He also handles governmental investigations and white-collar criminal defense matters.

After law school, Bill served as a legislative aide to U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and as a counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

He has received the Order of the Palmetto, and the Robert W. Hemphill Award, given by the S.C. Defense Trial Attorneys Association.

Over a career spanning four decades, Coates has worked hard on behalf of his clients and focused on service to the legal profession.

“I have dedicated my practice to earning the confidence and trust of members of the bench, the bar and my clientele,” he says.

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REGINALD P. CORLEY PRESIDENT AND MANAGING ATTORNEY

SCOTT & CORLEY COLUMBIA

Reggie Corley credits his father for paving his pathway into law.

"My father was the former assessor for Lexington County, and I have always been interested in real estate and real property law,” he says. “My interest in real property law led me to my first job after law school — representing mortgage banks and lenders in real estate and consumer litigation matters.”

Corley has continued that practice area since 2001. Today he is president and managing attorney at Scott & Corley in Columbia.

He maintains an abiding faithfulness to the Golden Rule and believes that is the key to a successful practice.

“Whether it is opposing counsel or a pro se defendant, I always show respect and dignity to all parties in a case,” he says. “In today’s environment, I often feel this important principle is either missing or overlooked and for me and my partners, the Golden Rule is an integral part of our core foundation.”

MARK B. GODDARD SHAREHOLDER TURNER PADGET COLUMBIA

Mark Goddard, a shareholder and executive committee member at Turner Padget, takes a personal approach to his practice.

Parlaying his lifelong love of sports into his practice, he uses his competitive nature to his clients’ advantage and takes a team approach to best serve their needs.

Over the years, he has forged a bond with the small business community and gives back to its members through the firm’s Palmetto Propeller, a service that provides support to startups and small businesses in the Southeast.

This year, he celebrates his 20th anniversary with Turner Padget. He values the relationships he has forged with his clients and has enjoyed watching their companies grow and succeed.

“As my practice has developed, I had the opportunity to develop great relationships with business leaders, owners and entrepreneurs throughout South Carolina,” he says. “It has been incredibly rewarding to be able to collaborate with my clients on the myriad of issues they face and give back to our state’s workforce and communities.”

Congratulations!

Penny Hays Cauley

ANNE McGINNESS KEARSE MEMBER

With more than two decades of experience in complex litigation, Anne Kearse brings a passion for justice to each client she represents. She is a member at MotleyRice and serves on the firm’s litigation team.

“I love not only working with my clients, I enjoy doing the research,” she says. “If a company has hidden something, I like to find it.”

Before going to law school, Kearse honed her client services and research skills as a trial paralegal. She enjoys taking a team approach with her colleagues, whether that is through mentoring younger attorneys and looking at cases through their fresh eyes or examining past cases from more experienced attorneys. The expertise she brings to the table focuses on keeping her clients’ best interests at heart.

“There is a cause, there is a client, there is a problem that needs to be corrected or a wrong that needs to be made right,” she says. “This is a mission I live by.”

PETER G. SIACHOS PARTNER

Peter Siachos learned at a young age that he loved being at the front of the room.

“I enjoyed public speaking, performing in public and ‘making my case,’ whether it was to my parents, teachers or peers,” he says.

He honed his skills by taking every opportunity to participate in mock trials or oral advocacy in high school, college and law school. His journey led him to his practice as a litigator at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, where he is the co-chair of the firm’s commercial litigation practice group, which has 700 members spanning all 50 states.

“My personal mission is not only to continue to provide to my clients aggressive and efficient legal representation but also the client service they deserve,” he says. “As a firm leader, I strive to create a successful, collegial, multifaceted and fun office where our attorneys have all the tools and support necessary to fulfill their own missions.”

DAVID A. MAXFIELD ATTORNEY

For nearly 25 years, Dave Maxfield has represented individual consumers in cases against banks, credit reporting agencies, debt collectors and insurance companies.

At one time, he was a personal injury lawyer who represented plaintiffs. From there, he transitioned into helping individuals in disputes with financial institutions.

“The bad conduct we see from banks, insurers, credit reporting agencies and similar corporations is rarely accidental and frequently designed to take advantage of regular people,” he says. “I got into consumer litigation to try to level the playing field and call out this kind of conduct, and after 30 years, I still love what I do.”

He lives by the motto “to go imperfectly in the right direction.”

“Lawyers think they must be perfect or ‘lawyerly’ to get results,” he says. “But at the end of the day, a lot of what we do is still about right and wrong. If your heart is in the right place, things tend to work out in the end.”

DANIEL B. WHITE PARTNER

GALLIVAN WHITE BOYD GREENVILLE

A partner in Gallivan White Boyd’s Greenville office, Danny White has spent his career defending clients involved in complex litigation, products liability, class actions, drug and medical device and toxic and mass torts litigation.

His firm has a track record for hiring women, including being recognized by the Defense Research Institute for its efforts to advance minorities and women.

“We only hire the best and brightest, and about 65% of our new hires are usually female because they are predominantly in the top 10% of their class,” he says.

Active in the legal profession, White is a past president of the South Carolina Bar and was the South Carolina Bar Delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates from 2010-14.

“We do well when we do good,” he says. “Our firm has always emphasized that people in the firm should get involved in their community and in their legal organizations to give back and contribute to the profession.”

DAVID B. YARBOROUGH JR. FOUNDING PARTNER YARBOROUGH APPLEGATE CHARLESTON

Since graduating from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1998, David Yarborough has devoted his practice to doing good, being of service to others and leaving people and situations better off than he found them.

A native of Charleston, Yarborough was a defense trial lawyer for years before co-founding Yarborough Applegate. The firm focuses on catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases.

“Consumer litigation is a subset of what I do if a consumer product is defective and injures someone, but the great majority of my practice is handling single-event serious injury and death cases,” he says.

Nearly all of Yarborough’s cases come as referrals from other lawyers.

“Many of those referrals come from defense counsel who we have previously litigated against or who know us by reputation,” he says. “I believe that speaks loudly as to who we are, how we conduct ourselves in our profession and the results that we get for our clients.”