South Carolina Litigation, Business, Tax & Estate Planning Law Firm

Turner Padget Graham & Laney P.A.

40 Calhoun Street
Suite 200
Charleston, South Carolina 29401
USA

(843) 576-2800

(843) 577-3369

www.turnerpadget.com/

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Law Firm Overview

Turner Padget is a premier litigation law firm with five offices strategically located across South Carolina. Our firm's deep understanding of South Carolina’s laws and what it takes to do business in the Palmetto State allows us to provide our clients with straightforward, practical advice targeted at meeting their legal demands.

While our practice areas have expanded over the past eighty years to meet the evolving needs of our clients, it is our legacy as litigators that remain paramount to our success. Widely known for our practical approach to the law, our attorneys have earned national recognition for their success and experience across South Carolina and beyond.

Nathaniel A. Turner opened his office for the general practice of law in 1929, after serving as an attorney for the South Carolina Tax Commission and division director for the South Carolina Highway Department. More than eighty years later, Nat Turner’s solo practice is now one of South Carolina’s largest law firms, with more than 200 employees serving a diverse client base.

Practice Areas

Additional Practice Areas: Construction Bonds; Probate Administration; Wealth Protection Planning; Construction Litigation; Employment Litigation; Insurance Litigation; Personal Injury Litigation; Real Property Litigation; Securities Litigation; Trucking Litigation; Corporate Investigations; Business Entity Planning; Commercial Financing; Commercial Real Estate; Community Associations and Private Clubs; Drug and Medical Device; Economic Development Incentives.

Practice Areas Description

Our practice areas include:

- Litigation

• Appellate

Our firm's Appellate Practice Group handles appeals, petitions, and other complex matters in both state and federal courts. We are a team of experienced attorneys representing both appellants and respondents in the South Carolina Supreme Court, the South Carolina Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. These appeals have involved essentially every field of litigation, including products liability, business disputes, contractual issues, premises liability, professional liability, construction claims, general tort law, and numerous issues relating to the insurance industry. We also represent clients involved in appeals from decisions by South Carolina’s administrative agencies and tribunals, including the Workers’ Compensation Commission.

• Business Litigation

Our team of business litigators is comfortable using the courts to solve problems for which no other solution can be found. Years of experience mean that we are not being trained on our client’s time but that we can, from day one, provide value in moving the dispute toward a favorable resolution. We recognize that such litigation is often unique for our client since this may be the only case in which the client is ever involved. We serve our business litigation clients in the following areas: Accounting and Financial; Accounts Receivable Collections; Admiralty and Maritime; Banking; Class Actions; Construction Bonds; and Employment Matters.

• Class Actions

Our firm has more than twenty years of front-line experience in class action litigation, primarily in defense of products liability and environmental cases. We know class action litigation from every aspect, beginning with the critical opening challenges involving jurisdiction and certification to the end game of settlement or trial. Clients faced with the often daunting complexity and uncertainty of a class action lawsuit can count on sure direction and sound practical judgment from the Turner Padget Class Actions Group.

• Construction Litigation

Turner Padget represents the gamut of players in the industry, from building product manufacturers to the contractors who build South Carolina’s houses, workplaces and hotels. We provide both in-state and out-of-state clients with the expertise of a national law firm and the granular knowledge of local zoning, planning and inspection practices, the mindset of potential jury pools, opposing counsel and other local factors that influence legal strategy. Our practice works with insurance companies by responding day or night to document and investigate construction accident scenes, and we know the protocols for investigating serious building defects, such as mold, that appear after construction is complete.

• Employment Litigation

Our Employment Litigation practice includes: Administrative Hearings and Appeals; Employee Handbooks; Employment Contracts; Employment Discrimination and Harassment; Employment Torts; ERISA; FMLA Compliance; Hiring and Discharge; Non-Compete, Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants; Retaliation; Sexual Harassment Claims; and Wage and Hour. Employment law requires a team of seasoned and knowledgeable professionals and Turner Padget has a team of professionals that have the experience and knowledge to serve our clients.

• Food, Beverage and Consumer Products Industry

Turner Padget represents suppliers, processors, distributors, restaurants, grocery stores, bottlers, hotels and a variety of other businesses that support these industries We counsel and defend clients in food-borne illness and food safety issues, sampling and testing procedures, premises liability, governmental regulatory and compliance issues, and media relations and crisis management. We also handle corporate planning, tax, stockholder disputes, mergers and acquisitions, and employment cases. With five offices throughout South Carolina, our firm can efficiently handle these matters in any venue in our state.

• Insurance Litigation

Our firm has represented insurers since the founding of the firm in 1929. From representing policyholders to direct representation of carriers, the firm has great depth and experience in all aspects of insurance law. We represent insurance carriers by serving as retained counsel, providing coverage and claim handling advice, conducting examinations under oath, prosecuting and defending declaratory judgment actions, defending bad faith suits, and representing carriers in administrative and regulatory matters.

• Intellectual Property Litigation (Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks)

Our Intellectual Property team prioritizes, identifies pivotal issues, effectively communicates those issues to the judge, jury, or mediator, and works to resolve those issues for our clients in a timely manner that satisfies their objectives. Throughout the litigation process, our attorneys update and counsel our clients about the progress, costs, and deadlines of the case, to ensure that our clients are informed and that their best interests are served.

• Mediation and Arbitration

Turner Padget recognized that litigants are better served by being directly involved in resolving their disputes without enduring the expense, anxiety, and uncertainty of litigation long before our courts mandated mediation. Now that mediation, arbitration, and early neutral evaluation are the norm rather than the exception, we have developed a diverse team of trained and certified mediators conveniently located in each of our five offices throughout the state. Having been in the business of solving problems in South Carolina for over 80 years, we have both the credibility and experience to help you to efficiently and fairly settle your disputes in a conference room rather than a courtroom.

• Medical Malpractice

Our medical malpractice team has in-depth experience in serving medical professionals with critical issues, including litigation, that not only affect their careers, but also their livelihoods and their professional reputations. We serve these professionals inside and outside the courtroom doors, providing counsel with legal advice and direction to avoid medical malpractice claims and, when claims arise, navigating the litigious business environment to aggressively defend them in the courtroom. Our litigators understand the dynamics of when another professional undergoes the ordeal of litigation as well as its potential impact on their careers. Turner Padget maintains a highly experienced and qualified staff ready to defend whatever litigation may arise.

• Personal Injury Litigation

In our role as counsel for numerous insurance carriers, Turner Padget has developed a team of lawyers with significant experience in litigating personal injury cases. Our attorney development program emphasizes trial experience early in each lawyer’s career. As a result, many of the firm’s shareholders have each tried in excess of one hundred jury trials over the course of their legal career. We routinely handle personal injury cases through pre-suit investigation and negotiation, discovery, mediation, arbitration, trial, and appeal. While the vast majority of these matters involve defending personal injury claims, Turner Padget does represent select clients in the prosecution of these cases. We offer a variety of fee arrangements on personal injury cases, including alternate or fixed fee structures.

• Premises Liability

Premises liability claims encompass a wide variety of allegations. Our Premises Liability Group can handle all types of premises liability cases for individuals, businesses, homeowners, insurance carriers, and commercial insurance carriers. We have represented restaurants, retail chains, grocery stores, hotels, nightclubs, homeowners, and a variety of other businesses. Our attorneys are experienced in defending claims for false arrest, slip-and-fall injuries, food poisoning, defective walkways and doors, animal attacks, assaults/inadequate security and drowning cases. Because our offices are located in all regions of South Carolina, Turner Padget attorneys can efficiently handle these types of claims in any venue in the state.

• Probate and Trust Litigation

Our Probate Litigation Practice combines two of our firm’s strengths: litigation and probate and estate planning. Our trial lawyers work closely with our probate and estate planning attorneys, one of whom is the former Probate Judge for Richland County, South Carolina (Columbia), to provide our clients with a broad range of experience to effectively represent their interests in probate and trust litigation. We frequently represent heirs, beneficiaries, personal representatives, executors, and trustees, including corporate fiduciaries, throughout South Carolina.

• Product Liability

Whether it is catastrophic, complex product litigation or complicated insurance related issues, our team can meet the need. Having successfully defended numerous multi-week trials in both state and Federal court, the Turner Padget Product Liability Group has proven its abilities over and over. All cases are not created equally, however, and therefore having the flexibility to match the size and complexity of the case with the appropriate lawyers within any geographic location in the state enables us to provide the most effective representation in the most efficient manner, a service offering of which our entire firm is proud.

• Professional Liability

We serve Accountants, Architects, Attorneys, Directors and Officers, Insurance Agents and Brokers, and Medical Professionals/Medical Malpractice inside and outside the courtroom doors, providing counsel with legal advice and direction to avoid professional claims and, when claims arise, navigating the litigious business environment to aggressively defend them in the courtroom. Our understanding and experience in these venues provides invaluable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each case. Turner Padget prides itself in providing exceptional legal services in the most efficient manner. Our litigators understand the dynamics that arise when another professional undergoes the ordeal of litigation as well as its potential impact on their careers. Turner Padget maintains a highly experienced and qualified staff ready to defend whatever litigation may arise.

• Real Property Litigation

Our Real Property Litigation Group combines the experience of our transactional lawyers with the talents of some of South Carolina’s most accomplished litigators. Our Real Property Litigation team has handled matters ranging from collection actions against tenants to challenges to the enforceability of restrictive covenants. We represent title insurers and their insureds, developers, homebuilders, community associations, lenders, landlords, and tenants among others. Few other firms have the ability to bring together lawyers who have a thorough understanding of real property law with those who have the skill set to use that understanding to effectively advocate for their clients in court.

• Securities Litigation

Our attorneys frequently represent institutional and individual clients in securities matters, including proceedings before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), District Court actions brought by the SEC, and private state and federal securities actions. Firm attorneys have handled matters throughout the state in each of the firm’s five offices. In addition to having knowledge and experience in the area of state and federal securities law, members of the group have knowledge and experience in the related areas of accounting, banking, taxation, business structures and transactions, as well as criminal prosecutorial and defense work.

• Trucking Litigation

Our firm's Trucking Group is in tune with the needs of the trucking and transportation industries. Our attorneys represent intrastate and interstate carriers, global delivery corporations, waste management companies, and railroads. We can handle catastrophic injury claims, property damage claims or hazardous material claims beginning with the date of an incident. Turner Padget’s Emergency Response Team allows clients to contact an attorney after normal business hours to respond to the scene of an accident. These same attorneys can assist clients with pre-suit investigations and defend them if litigation is initiated. Once a suit is filed, we can efficiently represent our clients through all aspects of discovery and trial, due in part to having five offices located throughout the state.

• White Collar Crime and Corporate Investigations

Our White Collar Crime Group is led by René Josey, the former chief federal prosecutor for South Carolina. As a United States Attorney, René participated in over a dozen felony criminal trials in every active federal division of the State. In private practice, he has participated in a like number of trials as well as numerous appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Judicial Circuit. In private practice, René has also handled matters throughout the State including with most solicitor’s offices. In addition to prosecutorial and criminal defense experience, our group has knowledge and experience in the areas of accounting, banking, taxation, and business structures and transactions. As a result, members of this practice group are experienced in conducting or assisting internal corporate investigations.

• Workers’ Compensation

Turner Padget’s Workers’ Compensation team has the experience and ability to handle the most complicated claims. The attorneys on this team include a former Workers’ Compensation Commissioner, Past President of the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Educational Association, and a former adjuster. Each attorney on the team has the knowledge to help to bring your case to a successful resolution. Our group consists of talented attorneys who evaluate the exposure of each case and aim to use the most cost effective means of resolving every case we handle. We have a true understanding of how each claim affects employers and insurance companies.

- Business and Transactions

• Administrative and Regulatory Law

Turner Padget’s Administrative and Regulatory Group’s broad base of legal experience allows us to handle almost any administrative or regulatory matter before federal and state agencies. From licensing disputes to proceedings before Administrative Law Judges, Turner Padget provides exceptional advocacy for business interests in South Carolina.

• Business Entity Planning

Our lawyers are experienced in helping clients select the appropriate business entity, organizational and management structure for meeting each client's specific needs. We regularly assist our clients in the formation of partnerships, S corporations, C corporations, and limited liability companies. Beyond mere entity formation, our lawyers also have extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, equity and debt financing, private securities offerings, and contractual negotiations of all types. Typical contractual arrangements we consider and employ in our business entity planning practice include buy-sell agreements, and management and employment contracts and benefits.

• Commercial Financing

Time is always of the essence in the world of commercial finance, and no one understands this better than our commercial financing lawyers who regularly help lenders, developers and other businesses in connection with their South Carolina financing matters. Often lawyers mistake speed for efficiency and neglect the level of detail necessary to protect the client’s interests in an effort to close a transaction within a tightened timeframe.

Our Commercial Financing team approaches each transaction with the client’s specific needs in mind in order to maintain efficiency without compromising protection. Whether a client needs comprehensive representation (from negotiation to closing) or more specific services (document preparation, review, title review, due diligence advice and assistance, loan workouts or modifications), or more generalized counsel, the risks surrounding each transaction are given the deliberate analysis and attention they require without sacrificing timeliness.

• Commercial Real Estate

Our firm has a long-standing history of working in all aspects of commercial real estate, including real estate acquisition and disposition, leasing, land use planning, financing and development. We represent lenders, developers, equity investors, buyers, sellers, community associations, landlords, and tenants throughout South Carolina and assist them with coordinating their real estate needs in other states. No matter how unique your transaction may be, our experience enables us to identify potential issues early on so that they can be appropriately managed before they become actual problems.

• Community Associations and Private Clubs

Turner Padget’s Community Associations and Private Clubs attorneys routinely represent large, medium and small community associations and private clubs in their formation, governance and operation, including, but not limited to: advising officers and boards of directors and property managers on governance issues, including fiduciary duties, ARB issues, and preparation and revision of covenants, master deeds and bylaws; defending of directors in litigation; developer turn-over and defective design/construction disputes; real estate development and financing; leases, management and other contracts; taxation; employment law; environmental matters, land use planning; miscellaneous litigation; and collections.

• Economic Development Incentives

The Economic Development Incentives Group works to provide expanding and new business, looking to locate in South Carolina, with exploration and evaluation of the tax and incentive options available, negotiation of incentive agreements with local and state government and municipal and public utilities, and documentation and implementation of the incentive package.

• Healthcare Law

Turner Padget’s Healthcare Practice Group focuses on regulatory compliance and transactions specific to the healthcare industry in South Carolina. Our clients include individual physicians and other healthcare providers, healthcare practice groups, independent practice associations (IPAs) and management service organizations (MPOS).

• Hospitality Law

Our Hospitality Law team members are experienced in handling a wide range of complex transactions—including sophisticated financing, major acquisitions, land use planning and permitting, construction, licensing, tax planning and project disposition. We work with clients in resort development. We also provide advice and counsel on ownership programs, mixed-use condominiums, country clubs and condominium-hotels.

• Immigration Law

Our Immigration Practice is committed to working with employers, colleges and international clients with regard to a variety of transnational issues, including business visas and intra-company immigration issues, professional, and student work visas.

• Intellectual Property Law (Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks)

Turner Padget’s Intellectual Property team combines an exclusive focus on intellectual property law with an individualized approach to each of our client’s needs, to achieve useful, sensible, and valuable results. Our work includes preparation and prosecution of U. S. applications, pursuit of international intellectual property protection, assistance in technology transfers and acquisitions, and counseling directed toward growth, management, and exploitation of our clients’ intellectual property portfolios.

• Mergers and Acquisitions

Our Mergers and Acquisitions Practice represents both individuals and companies in the sale and purchase of businesses throughout South Carolina and the southeast. Our clients include individuals, companies, private equity firms, and venture-backed companies who rely on our attorneys’ expertise and experience in various industries. Turner Padget attorneys bring real-life experience and practicality to all of our Mergers and Acquisitions transactions.

• Municipal Law

Turner Padget’s Municipal Law Group brings value to its local government clients with a broad range of services and a wealth of experience. Our attorneys offer a unique combination of experience in nearly every aspect of law touching municipalities, including annexation, land use and zoning, employment and personnel, eminent domain and inverse condemnation, business licenses, Freedom of Information Act issues, contracts, economic development, tort liability and public litigation, procurement and bidding, real estate acquisitions, construction contracts and litigation, drafting of ordinances, municipal powers and procedures issues, and intergovernmental agreements for the sharing of municipal services.

• Employment Counseling

We provide counseling services to management in all employment and labor-related matters. Our clients range from large complex corporations with employees that number in the thousands to mid-level and small businesses with detailed employment requirements and benefits.

- Tax and Estate Planning

• Employee Benefits and ERISA

Turner Padget’s Employee Benefits Practice encompasses involvement with all types of welfare and pension benefits issues. The firm’s services in the area of qualified retirement plans include plan design and implementation, plan administration, monitoring plan compliance with reporting and disclosure requirements, and remediation of plan qualification defects through the Internal Revenue Service voluntary correction program. Our attorneys have extensive experience with various types of qualified plans including 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, money purchase plans, 403(b) plans, and ESOP plans, including the financing and business succession planning opportunities associated with implementing a leveraged ESOP.

Our lawyers also have experience in the design and implementation of non-qualified deferred compensation plans and monitoring such plans’ compliance with the requirements of Section 409A. In addition, the firm’s employment lawyers routinely counsel clients in HIPAA and COBRA compliance matters, as well as involvement with ERISA litigation matters involving both pension and welfare benefit plan issues.

• Nonprofit Organizations

We assist clients with the formation of, and successful attainment of tax-exempt status, for numerous types of non-profit entities including: private foundations, community foundations, hospital foundations, university foundations, supporting organizations, municipal associations, social welfare organizations, business leagues, and various types of publicly-supported charitable organizations. In addition, our attorneys advise these non-profits with ongoing issues such as compliance with current reporting requirements and minimum distribution requirements, governance matters, unrelated business income, employment law matters, joint ventures, planned giving, and other regulatory requirements.

• Probate Administration

Our attorneys give crucial advice to both individual and institutional fiduciaries regarding all aspects of probate and trust administration, including post-mortem tax planning and estate tax return preparation. With our statewide presence, we can assist with estate administration in any county in the state. It is comforting to our clients to know that the same attorneys who designed their estate plan will also be there to guide their families through the intricacies of probate administration.

• Tax Planning and Controversies

We have significant experience in handling tax controversy matters at the federal, state, and local levels. Our lawyers routinely represent clients before the IRS and the South Carolina Department of Revenue in various stages including administrative hearings, audits, appeals, tax collection matters, and tax litigation.

• Tax Planning for Real Estate

Turner Padget’s Tax Planning for Real Estate attorneys have significant experience and expertise in counseling real estate owners, developers, and investors. Our representations typically involve advising our clients with regard to the tax aspects of real estate transactions and in the development and implementation of creative and practical solutions to the unique tax problems our clients face.

• Wealth Protection Planning

Our team has worked with clients from diverse backgrounds and all levels of affluence to successfully, and ethically, protect and preserve their wealth and assets. In some instances we have helped protect family assets passed down through many generations. In other instances we have helped clients protect a “nest egg” for their retirement or provide for their children’s or grandchildren’s education.

• Wills, Trusts and Estates

Our firm offers clients assistance in planning during life and at death. This assistance includes designing and implementing wealth protection techniques, business succession arrangements and estate plans. Estate planning crosses several legal disciplines, including wills and trusts, estate and gift taxes, real estate transfers, charitable giving, and elder law. We design plans that, above all, meet our clients’ needs and desires to properly hold their assets during life and to distribute their estates in an orderly and efficient manner at death, giving special attention to reducing estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes in the process.