Three attorneys from the law firm of Gaffney Lewis & Edwards were included in the 2018 Legal Elite of the Midlands.

Attorneys recognized in the publication include:

• Susan Rawls Strom – Family Law (recognized each year since 2010)
• Lee Ellen Bagley – Products Liability Defense, Premises Liability Defense and Insurance Defense
• Randi Lynn Roberts – Products Liability Defense and Premises Liability Defense

“We are gratified to have three attorneys in our Columbia office recognized,” said partner Amy Gaffney.  “This is well-deserved peer recognition.”

Strom, a partner with the firm has extensive litigation experience. For the past ten years she has focused her practice in the area of domestic matters including high net worth divorces, asset valuation issues related to the equitable division of marital estates and high conflict custody actions.

Bagley, a partner with the firm, focuses her practice in the area of litigation, defending tort, pharmacy malpractice, and product liability claims.   Her clients include national retail establishments, insurance companies, as well as individuals.

Roberts, an associate with the firm, is a civil litigation attorney. She represents retailers and insurers in premises liability and other tort cases.

The abrupt shutdown of the V.C. Summer Plant expansion project in Jenkinsville, South Carolina was an event that impacted more than 5,000 employees and their families. These employees showed up for work on July 31, 2017, only to be told they no longer had a job.

Two weeks later attorneys Amy Gaffney and Susan Strom, partners with the law firm of Gaffney Lewis and Edwards, met with more than 800 of the affected employees to hear their concerns. “The former V.C. Summer employees had many questions and were understandably very worried,” said Gaffney. “We assured them we would look into the situation and any possible remedies, and we did.”

Subsequent to these meetings, Gaffney, together with co-counsel from Yarborough Applegate in Charleston and Klehr Harrison in Philadelphia, PA, filed three class action suits on behalf of the displaced employees. The first lawsuit filed alleged that Fluor, the project manager, did not correctly pay certain of its employees’ overtime as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); two other suits alleged that Fluor and a Westinghouse subsidiary, WECTEC, violated the WARN Act when it failed to give employees 60 days’ notice of the plant closing.

The class action suit seeking recovery and unpaid overtime due to the Fluor employees was litigated, mediated, and settled for $1.59 million dollars. The settlement funds have been distributed to the displaced workers.

“Given the dire circumstances facing some of the displaced workers, it was important to us to keep our commitment to those workers, work swiftly, and reach a resolution that would provide them with the money they earned and rightly deserved,” Gaffney said.

The WARN Act case against WECTEC is moving forward in the Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. Gaffney and her colleagues represent almost 500 former Fluor employees in the WARN Act case pending in U.S. District Court in Columbia. That case was recently consolidated with other WARN Act cases and will now proceed. The WARN Act case against Fluor is one of the largest class action employment cases in South Carolina history.

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

Columbia, SC. (May 10, 2018) – The three founding partners from Gaffney Lewis & Edwards have been selected to the 2018 South Carolina Super Lawyers List as top attorneys. 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 honor.

Gaffney Lewis and Edwards attorneys honored as South Carolina Super Lawyers in 2018 are:

SUSAN EDWARDS (COLUMBIA) – FAMILY LAW

AMY GAFFNEY (CHARLESTON) – EMPLOYMENT AND LABOR

REGINA 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.

With increased demand for mediation services, partners Amy Gaffney and Regina Lewis are expanding this practice to cover all of South Carolina. Located in Columbia and Charleston the firm is strategically situated to accommodate requests across the state.

A certified mediator since 2008, Lewis has an active mediation practice mediating employment and injury disputes pending in federal and state court including Title VII discrimination, wrongful termination, and negligence claims. An evaluative mediator, Lewis conducts an analysis of each case and engages the parties and their counsel to discuss and weigh the likelihood of success from each party’s perspective. Her approach to mediation has led to requests from both defense and plaintiff counsel to mediate their cases.

“I enjoy my role as a mediator,” said Regina Lewis. “Working with both parties to understand their position and help them reach a resolution that is acceptable to both is very gratifying.”

Gaffney, a certified mediator since 1995, has decades of experience mediating employment and personal injury cases including those alleging sexual orientation discrimination, harassment, personal injury, premises liability, equal pay, loss of consortium, civil rights violations and defamation.

Using her experience as a litigator Gaffney tailors the proceedings of each mediation to meet the needs of the specific case and facilitates a resolution that is satisfactory for both parties.

“Every case is different,” says Gaffney. “Understanding the position of both parties and earning their trust during the mediation process allows me to facilitate a satisfactory result for everyone.”

Lewis and Gaffney are available to mediate federal and state cases (South Carolina) across the state including the Upstate and Pee Dee areas. For more information about their services and availability call 803-790-8838.

SOURCE:https://midlandsbiz.whosonthemove.com/pressreleases/gaffney-lewis-edwards-attorneys-expand-mediation-practice/

The law firm of Gaffney Lewis & Edwards (GLE) is celebrating ten years of service to clients. Ten years ago three female attorneys stepped out of big firm world with a dream of having their own firm. They secured a major retailer as their first client and the rest is history.

“We are very proud of the firm we have become and the relationships we have with our clients,” said founding partner, Regina Hollins Lewis.

Originating in Columbia, the firm expanded to Charleston in the first year. Now with two locations, the firm has grown to 8 attorneys and a strong, experienced staff.

“We are proud of the calculated and reasonable growth over the past ten years that has enabled us to take on national clients and broaden our scope of work in areas of personal interest of individual attorneys,” said founding partner, Amy Gaffney.

Ten years later, the partners have built a firm with a foundation in facilitating work-life balance while cultivating a gratifying law practice. GLE is an AV-rated firm with Martindale-Hubbell and is certified by the WOMEN’S BUSINESS ENTERPRISE NATIONAL COUNCIL.

“Working with Regina as an associate in a large firm motivated me to want to create the culture we envisioned we could thrive in and looking back we have accomplished that with a growing firm,” said founding partner, Susan Edwards. “We have hired people, and created a happy and cohesive work environment.”

The firm has a core practice of corporate tort defense and over the past decade has grown a well-developed and highly respected family law practice and a successful statewide mediation practice.

Source: http://midlandsbiz.whosonthemove.com/pressreleases/gaffney-lewis-edwards-law-firm-celebrates-10-years-service-clients/