It is brag time again! Several weeks ago, my son Patrick received the Best Local Actor Award at the Free Times Celebration for the Best of Columbia! Patrick caught the theatre bug in middle school and still has it to this very day. After getting his undergraduate degree in Theatre at the University of South Carolina, Patrick traveled to perform in Chicago and then New York where he was selected to be in the Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He has starred in numerous plays in Chicago, New York, Columbia, Norfolk, and other locales. He is well known on the Columbia stage at USC and at the Workshop and Trustus Theatres. To say I am proud of him is an understatement! He also teaches theatre as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of South Carolina Department of Theatre and Dance in addition to his full-time job and being an excellent parent to his beloved daughter Helena.

Some current projects that Patrick is working on include directing Sweeney Todd at Trustus Theatre, which is running from September 29th through October 28th. He is also producing The Laramie Project which is being performed at the University of South Carolina School of Law (my alma mater) on October 17th and 18th.

Sometimes early in the mornings when I sit back and reflect on the highs and lows of my life, I am thankful to God for all my blessings! Patrick along with my baby boy Mac are at the top of my list!

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

 

Recently, I received the resignation of one South Carolina’s finest public servants and my friend Chris Eversmann who is leaving his dual duties with Richland County as Airport General Manager and Deputy Director of the Department of Public Works to take a job as the Program Manager for the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission. Chris is an engineer by trade after a stint in the Marine Corps. He has worked various jobs in his field of expertise and spent seventeen years with Richland County. We are losing a valuable member of the airport staff and I can sincerely tell you that every interaction I have had with Chris was a positive experience. He and I flat out work well together, and I will miss him dearly!

I am happy for him personally and this is a step up for him professionally. The Aeronautics Commission is getting a good soldier! Chris’s last day will be September 15th and I have enjoyed collaborating with him on hiring his successor. I wish nothing but the best for Chris moving forward in his new endeavor.

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

 

Gladys is our beloved receptionist at the Columbia office of the Mike Kelly Law Group. She was born in Eastover, SC and has lived substantially all her life in the Lower Richland community. She is a proud graduate of Benedict College and like me, she has two sons that both now live in Florida. She has been married for 43 years to Edward Harris. Her career spans three professions with 14 years as a banker, 21 years as a realtor and now as our receptionist with the Mike Kelly Law Group for the last 12 years. She has six grandchildren, only one of which is a girl! She enjoys bowling for fun and is very dedicated to the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Hopkins, SC. She also finds time to do volunteer work for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department with Project Hope and the Youth Arbitration Program.

Gladys, thank you for all you do for us, your family, your church, and our community. We are here for the people of South Carolina.

 

I am humbled, honored and pleased that I, along with my partners Brad Hewett and Janet Rhodes were selected in our respective practice categories for the 2024 Best Lawyers in America Catalog. The Best Lawyers in America is a national database and the preeminent source for recommended lawyers across the nation. It is a system which can customize one’s desired region and practice area. This year Brad Hewett was selected for Insurance Law and Personal Injury Litigation on the plaintiff’s side. While our other partner, Janet Rhodes was selected for Employment Law including Individuals and Litigation, as well as Labor and Employment. I was selected for Administrative/Regulatory Law and Workers’ Compensation Law – Claimants. This is so exciting for the Mike Kelly Law Group as the Best Lawyers in America is a peer reviewed source that highlights some of the best in the legal profession.

The legal profession is not all about awards and accolades, but it surely motivates us to do an even better job for our clients and to be the best lawyers we can be. Thanks to my fellow attorneys in South Carolina who bestowed these honors on us. All three of us will do our best to live up to this recognition. We are so proud to be here for the people of South Carolina.

 

For a long time, I have had a law office in Winnsboro, South Carolina. However, I finally made the exceedingly difficult but prudent decision to close our Winnsboro office and transfer these clients to Columbia. In addition to losing a longtime and dedicated employee, Greta Edwards, I am a big fan of small towns. I grew up in small town in southern Virginia and Winnsboro has always and will continue to be dear to me. However, when the offices are only 40 minutes apart and so many Fairfield County residents are used to driving to Columbia for professional services whether it be doctors, lawyers or the similar, it just made sense. With the tremendous growth in Columbia and Myrtle Beach, my primary focus needs to be on these offices and not spreading myself too thin. I will always have a special place in my heart for Fairfield County and plan to continue to be active in the area with the Chamber of Commerce and other community activities. It is a beautiful county with lots of beautiful people!

 

The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) is a national organization that I am honored to belong to. The ABOTA has at least one chapter in almost every state and has a very active chapter here in South Carolina! Attorney Luther Battiste served as President of the South Carolina Chapter and went on to become President of National ABOTA. He and his wife Judy are good friends of mine, and he is one of the most well-respected attorneys in our state. During his term, Luther and his wife created a reading program AT BAT – which stands for ABOTA Teaches: Balance, Advocacy & Tolerance. In this program ABOTA lawyers get to go into schools and read to children. I had the pleasure of doing so on July 12, 2023, at Brennen Elementary School here in Columbia. It was an absolutely delightful experience and the book I chose to read was Accordingly: Abuelo and Opa Make Music by Michael Genhart. Joining me for this reading session was my 28-year veteran legal assistant Jamie Brown who has made my life much easier for many years. She and I work well together, and it was quite a treat for us to see these young, precious, future leaders of South Carolina. I will gladly do it again whenever asked and if you ever get invited to read to a group of school children, I suggest you take the opportunity. It was quite rewarding and made my week.

 

We at the Mike Kelly Law Group were blessed over two years ago to have Dean Diamaduros join us as a lawyer on the litigation team working for my partner Brad Hewett. We have been incredibly pleased with not only his work ethic and product but the effervescence and outgoing personality that he has with everyone he meets. This KellyGram is dedicated to Dean and his new wife Appollonia (“Apples”).

They have a very interesting and romantic love story to tell. They met each other when they were around 12 years old and became best friends and are to this day. After an off and on relationship interrupted by Apples moving to Chicago for six years, they started dating seriously in 2019. This relationship culminated in a rite of Holy Matrimony which was performed by a Greek Orthodox Priest in the small seaside village of Kolumbari at Agia Marina Church in Crete, one of the southernmost islands of Greece. I wish I could have been there, but from all their pictures and stories I have heard it was a wonderful wedding like on the Greeks can do, (just remember the Movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding)! I asked Dean about what he most admired about Apples, and he said it is very hard to pick. He listed her extremely understanding nature, her independence, and he said she is definitely his better half. I think they both got lucky with their forever mates.

Dean, of course a dedicated member of the Mike Kelly Law Group team, and Apples is a hair stylist at Urban Nirvana at Trenholm Plaza for the last eight years.

We welcome Apples into the Mike Kelly Law Group family and wish you both a lifetime of happiness together.

 

Kim Sanders, one of our talented paralegals, grew up in Newberry County, attended St. Peter’s Catholic School right up the hill from the Mike Kelly Law Group and graduated high school from Mid-Carolina. She attended Midlands Technical College where she obtained her paralegal degree and came to work for my previous law firm, Suggs & Kelly, from 1989 to 2009 as a disability paralegal.

Kim left and worked elsewhere for eight years but returned home to the Mike Kelly Law Group in 2017 where she is currently in the same capacity as our paralegal on the Social Security Disability team in our Columbia office. She is married to Ted Sanders, and they have three children, ages 28, 24 and 15. Kim has a passion for the area of disability law and cares greatly about her clients and helps them get the disability benefits they deserve. When she is not working, Kim and her family are out on Lake Murray. She enjoys fishing, yard work, and hunting, which is amazing to me. Also, in her spare time, she roots for the Georgia Bulldogs, and I like everything about her except for that, LOL! Seriously though, Kim’s father went to the University of Georgia and her family has always been Georgia fans so I will give her a hall pass for that.

Thank you, Kim, for all you do for the Mike Kelly Law Group.

 

I had the privilege on Monday July 10, 2023, to preside over a brief ceremony at my beloved Jim Hamilton – LB Owens Airport. Present were SC Aviation Association members, Airport Board Members, Airport General Manager Chris Eversmann, who excels in every task that he undertakes, and long-term Airport Manager Jim Hamilton whose name appears on the airport itself. The star of the show was William “Bill” Vartorella, brother of the late Doug Vartorella who had a lengthy career with the National Security Agency and whose passion for aviation led him to develop a vast collection of military and aviation memorabilia. A portion of this collection was donated by Bill to Jim Hamilton – LB Owens Airport in honor of his brother. This wonderful event would not have taken place without long-time aviation attorney, John Hodge, who facilitated the event and happens to be an airport tenant. It was truly a momentous event and a win for the airport!

The citizens of the City of Columbia and Richland County are truly fortunate to have a first-class airport like ours. If you are in the neighborhood, I suggest you come by and look at the display we have on hand!

 

My good friend is the President of a non-profit called Project Unity USA having succeeded his mother as the Project Director. Elizabeth Trezevant was a long-time RN as well as leader of St. John Baptist Church in Columbia. Ms. Trezevant just passed away in March 2023, and was a mother of five children including Bruce Trezevant who is a personal friend of mine and a recent client of the firm. Bruce is an amazing public servant who believes in giving back to the community. This rally will take place at the SC State House on Saturday, July 15, 2023, from 10:00am to 6:00pm with a caravan of Corvettes cruising the Columbia streets symbolizing unity. This not a rally against the Second Amendment but standing up against gun violence across the board, especially in African American communities.

Project Unity USA has many activities that can bring our communities together and is a program that I plan to support going forward. A scholarship named the Elizabeth J. Trezevant Community Scholarship has been set up and will be presented. Please come out and participate this Saturday. Great job, Bruce, and thank you to the other volunteers at Project Unity USA/Columbia branch.