Gaffney, Lewis & Edwards partner Regina Hollins Lewis has been inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in North America. Lewis was one of four South Carolina attorneys among a class of 86 to be inducted as a Fellow at the annual meeting in New Orleans on September 27, 2018.

“I am honored and humbled to be selected as a Fellow in this distinguished group of trial lawyers,” says Lewis. “I am especially grateful for the support and warm welcome by the South Carolina Fellows and look forward to being an active member of the College.”

Fellowship in the College is limited to the top one percent of the total lawyer population of any state or province. There are currently approximately 5,800 members in the United States and Canada. Fellowship status is extended by invitation only after careful investigation, to those experienced trial lawyers of diverse backgrounds, who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Lawyers must have a minimum of fifteen years trial experience before they can be considered for Fellowship.

Lewis, a partner in the firm’s Columbia office is an experienced litigator and mediator. She focuses her defense practice in the areas of tort and employment litigation and represents companies in a wide range of lawsuits including premises, products, pharmacy liability, and Title VII actions.

A certified mediator since 2008, Lewis has a statewide mediation practice mediating employment and injury disputes pending in federal and state court including Title VII discrimination, wrongful termination, and negligence claims.

Partner Amy Gaffney also named lawyer of the year in columbia, south carolina, for litigation-labor and employment.

Gaffney Lewis & Edwards is pleased to announce that partners Amy Gaffney and Susan Rawls Strom have been selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2019.

“We are humbled to receive this recognition from our peers,” said Susan Strom, partner in the firm’s Columbia, South Carolina office.

Recognition by practice areas include:

AMY GAFFNEY:

• EMPLOYMENT LAW – INDIVIDUALS
• EMPLOYMENT LAW – MANAGEMENT
• LITIGATION – LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT

SUSAN RAWLS STROM:

• FAMILY LAW

Gaffney was also recognized as the “Lawyer of the Year” for Litigation – Labor and Employment in Columbia, South Carolina. This marks the third time Gaffney has received a “Lawyer of the Year” Distinction (Employment Law-Individuals, Columbia, SC 2017 and 2014)

This recognition is awarded to individual attorneys with the highest overall peer-feedback for a specific practice area in a geographical region. Only one attorney is recognized as the “Lawyer of the Year” for each specialty and location.

Best Lawyers is one of the oldest peer-review publications in the legal profession and is regarded by many as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Rankings are based on an exhaustive peer-review process in which attorneys from across the country provide feedback on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their respective practice areas.

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.