Columbia, SC (August 4, 2020) – Two attorneys from the law firm of GaffneyLewis, LLC have been included in the 2020 Legal Elite of the Midlands.

Attorneys recognized in the publication include:

• Amy L. Gaffney (Charleston) – Labor and Employment
• Regina Hollins Lewis (Columbia) – Labor and Employment

Gaffney, a founding partner working in the firm’s Charleston office, is a litigation attorney representing individuals and some companies throughout the state of South Carolina in employment and tort matters. Gaffney is also a certified mediator and has been involved in the resolution of hundreds of state and federal employment and tort cases.

Lewis, a founding partner based out of the firm’s Columbia office, has over 32 years of civil litigation and appellate experience. She is also a certified mediator and regularly mediates employment and tort matters across the state of South Carolina.

Integrated Media Publishing, publishers of Greater Columbia Business Monthly, Greenville Business Magazine, and Charleston Business Magazine, have been honoring attorneys in its Legal Elite feature since 2010. Attorneys recognized as 2020 Legal Elite will be featured in the August issue of the three publications.

This Friday, July 31st, will be the three-year anniversary of the day when thousands of South Carolinians lost their jobs after SCANA, Fluor, and others decided to abandon the project that was supposed to result in the construction of two pressurized water reactors at the VC Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, in Fairfield County.

Immediately after the project was discontinued, the employment lawyers at GaffneyLewis began to fight. For almost three years, GaffneyLewis’ employment team has worked to ensure that those who lost their jobs have been protected and that they will be paid all that they are due. Within days after the project ended, attorney Amy Gaffney held a public meeting in Winnsboro with over 800 former employees of SCANA, Fluor and other contractors to talk with them about possible claims they may have as a result of the loss of their jobs. Gaffney knew that the losses the employees and the local community felt would be significant. Click here for news coverage of the meeting in 2017.

Working with lawyers from the Charleston firm of Yarborough Applegate, GaffneyLewis employment lawyers fought and ultimately secured a settlement of over $1.5 million for a class of 60 Fluor employees who worked at VC Summer who had not been properly paid overtime wages as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. That case settled less than one year after the project’s abrupt end.

Today, almost three years after the project’s demise, the employment team at GaffneyLewis continues to represent thousands of former employees of the failed project who are seeking payment of wages under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act of 1988. That case was filed in August 2017 and will ultimately go to trial in April 2021 in Columbia, South Carolina.

Disclaimer: Prior results achieved by Gaffney, Lewis & Edwards do not guarantee a similar outcome for other clients.

GaffneyLewis, in partnership with Bruce E. Miller, PA of Charleston, SC, filed a collective action lawsuit against Hall’s Chop House-Charleston, alleging the restaurant has engaged in improper pay practices. The lawsuit claims that the well-known Charleston restaurant has improperly withheld amounts from the pay of servers, server assistants, and food runners, and that Hall’s has ignored the fact that servers frequently work ‘off the clock,’ resulting in their not being paid.

Employees of another Hall’s-owned restaurant, High Cotton, sued in 2019 for similar improprieties. That lawsuit was settled for $150,000.

Charleston’s “Post and Courier” wrote about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks wages, overtime pay, and amounts that were withheld for laundering the uniforms that servers, server assistants and food runners were required to wear. It is brought on behalf of a group of current and former employees. (View Complaint) The lawsuit also asks that Hall’s pay for the servers’ attorneys’ fees and costs, as allowed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

If you believe you have a claim related to Hall’s Chop House-Charleston’s pay practices, or if you have questions about any employment concerns, contact the Employment Team at GaffneyLewis. Call 803-790-8838 or click here to send us an email.

May 5, 2020 – GaffneyLewis LLC is proud to announce that its founding partners have been named to the 2020 South Carolina Super Lawyers List. Each year, no more than five percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this recognition.

GaffneyLewis attorneys honored as South Carolina Super Lawyers in 2020 are:

Amy Gaffney (Charleston) – Employment and Labor

Regina Hollins Lewis (Columbia) – Personal Injury – General

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

The annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area.