Best Lawyers in South Carolina, United States for Labor Law - Management
Select a city from the list below to find the best legal talent for your needs.
Cities
Wade Ballard counsels businesses on the entire range of workplace issues and provides advice and representation to employers on employment law, including wage and hour disputes, wrongful termination, retaliation discrimination, harassment, and other issues of concern to employers. He represents management in labor and employment matters in the courts, in arbitration, and before government agencies, including the EEOC, the U.S. Department of Labor, the North and South Carolina Departments of L...
Fred Suggs is a certified specialist in labor and employment law by the South Carolina Supreme Court. He is a founding lawyer of Ogletree Deakins, having been with the firm since its inception. Mr. Suggs helps companies avoid work-related legal exposure by giving preventive advice and providing training for managers at client locations. Mr. Suggs speaks regularly at employment law conferences, Bar Programs for other lawyers, Association of Corporate Council Meetings, SHRM Conferences for Huma...
Ted Gentry focuses his practice on counseling colleges and universities and on appellate litigation. Ted’s career handling complex litigation gives him valuable insights into the ways that today’s decisions affect tomorrow’s disputes. Ted has served education clients for over two decades, and has extensive appellate experience, including cases before the South Carolina Court of Appeals, the South Carolina Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and t...
Deborah C. Brown Debbie Brown is a member of GWB’s Workplace Practices Group and focuses her practice on the defense of employment and workers’ compensation cases. As a certified employment specialist by the South Carolina Supreme Court, Debbie is able to assist employers, including employers in workers’ compensation cases, with a wide array of employment issues. Debbie also conducts seminars in both employment law and workers’ compensation for other Bar members and cl...
Chris Gantt-Sorenson is a shareholder in Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd's Greenville office and serves as the employment law practice team leader, working exclusively with all types of employers, providing advice and counsel and representation when an employee or employees file a claim or a lawsuit. Chris advises employers and human resource professionals on issues that arise in the workplace daily. She defends clients in employment-related claims and litigation before administrative agencies, such ...
Mike Carrouth is a partner in the Columbia office. He is certified as a Specialist in Labor Law by the South Carolina Supreme Court. Mike has represented clients in successfully responding to union organizing efforts in 30 states. This work includes successfully defending against multi-site and multi-state national organizing blitzes and card-check/neutrality campaigns. Mike also has represented clients in numerous litigation matters, including jury trials, involving Family and Medical Leave ...
D. Michael Henthorne focuses his practice on representing clients in employment litigation. He has significant trial experience and has successfully appeared before both the South Carolina Court of Appeals and the South Carolina Supreme Court. He also appears regularly in federal and state courts in South Carolina and before various regulatory and administrative tribunals, such as: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The Department of Labor The South Carolina Human Affairs Commission ...
George Reeves is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Labor Law - Management and Litigation - Labor and Employment. George, who practices law in Columbia, South Carolina, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which George is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Stephen Woods represents companies in all aspects of labor and employment law. He assists national, regional, and local clients on counseling/preventive, EEOC and employment litigation, and traditional labor (union) issues and questions. He is the chair of the firm's Background Check Advice Group and the shareholder-author of the firm's O-D Comply: Background Check subscription materials.Stephen lives by a client-centric mantra which combines prevention and practicality to create innovative, ...
Phillip Kilgore has been in the practice of litigation and labor and employment law in the Greenville office of Ogletree Deakins since 1986. Phillip has extensive litigation experience, representing clients in state and federal courts and administrative tribunals. He has handled a wide range of cases from traditional employment discrimination claims to tort claims and from environmental claims to shareholder derivative actions and minority shareholder disputes. Phillip also is an expert in ad...
Jon Pearson is a partner in the firm's Columbia office. His practice emphasizes employment litigation of all types before state and federal courts, as well as traditional labor law. He has handled lawsuits and administrative charges involving wrongful discharge, Title VII, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as well as many other types of employment-based claims. Jon has al...
Allan Holmes, based in Charleston, South Carolina, is affiliated with Gibbs & Holmes PC. Since 1988, he has been a South Carolina Supreme Court Certified Specialist in Employment and Labor Law. Allan developed a focus in this area well before its certification. He served on the South Carolina Bar's Employment and Labor Law Specialization Advisory Board from 1997 to 1999 and has chaired the Labor Management & Relations Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Council for several years...
Ben Glass is the Managing Shareholder in the Charleston Office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. Ben earned his B.A. from the College of Charleston, and his J.D., cum laude, from the University of South Carolina School of Law. After a judicial clerkship with United States District Judge Henry M. Herlong, Jr., Ben joined Ogletree, Deakins in 1995. For the last 19 years, he has represented employers in all manner of labor and employment law issues, and spoken regularly on va...
Matthew J. Gilley is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Employment Law - Management. Matthew J., who practices law in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Matthew J. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Melissa is a member of Butler Snow’s Labor and Employment group, with experience in a wide range of industries. Melissa regularly counsels clients on compliance issues and represents employers before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission, and in both state and federal court against lawsuits arising under Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FMLA, and the FLSA.
Sheila Willis is committed to finding practical, real world solutions to her clients’ employment law needs. She represents companies—large and small—as they navigate employment issues related to hiring, discipline, investigations, employment discrimination, unemployment, and other related issues. Sheila provides guidance to higher education institutions on Title IX Compliance and investigations She has extensive experience providing compliance advice to federal contractors o...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.