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.

 

This week I’d like to highlight a wonderful restaurant with not only amazing food but a positive impact on the community, Winna’s Kitchen, located on 819 Main St. in Myrtle Beach. Winna’s Kitchen is truly one of the best local restaurants on the Grand Strand and it’s located right next to our Myrtle Beach office! Named after Chef Jess Sagun’s late mother, who went by the nickname Winna, this restaurant is an homage to family, community, and to living life with no regrets. Chef Jess opened Winna’s Kitchen in 2021 and prepares fresh farm-to-table meals with a menu that changes based on the seasons. Experience a true taste of summer in Myrtle Beach by trying out some of Winna’s Kitchen’s famous dishes such as their corn and tomato pie garnished with parmesan cheese, herbs, and seasoning.

Winna’s Kitchen not only serves incredible food but also is in touch with the local community and strives to help feed those in need. The restaurant is set to become a nonprofit this year and focuses on investing in the community. Winna’s Kitchen started an amazing program called “The #1” which is a program to help feed those in need. Patrons can give $5 and in turn receive a meal card which allows them to either give it to someone in need or they can leave it with the restaurant and when a person in need comes in, that person can enjoy a free sit-down meal. Chef Jess believes this is her special way of providing support to the local community through delicious meals. If you find yourself in the Myrtle Beach area this summer, please go check out Winna’s Kitchen!

 

A contingent of our Mike Kelly Law Group family will be manning our tent full of swag, smiles and best wishes as we celebrate America’s birthday next Tuesday. The one-day Peach Festival is full of fun, laughter and good times starting with the Peach parade at 9:30 AM. It will also feature a car show, food galore (focusing on anything enhanced by a peach flavor), live music, and arts and crafts vendors as well as a ton of fresh peaches for sale. The evening will be capped off by a firework show! This will be held at the Gilbert Community Park in beautiful Downtown Gilbert, South Carolina. We hope that you can attend and enjoy all that is peaches and what a small town in South Carolina has to offer. Please come by and see us. We look forward to seeing you there.

 

Michelle is our Senior Litigation Paralegal with thirty-one years of experience. She started out working at our former firm, Suggs & Kelly, at the age of seventeen and worked for us there for sixteen years. She obtained her paralegal degree from Midlands Tech. She worked under my friend and former Suggs & Kelly alumni John Kassel for a year, Fennel & McGuire in Myrtle Beach for two years, eight years in Spartanburg and then back in Columbia for two years before returning to her work home, the Mike Kelly Law Group eight years ago.

The most important people in her life are her son Reece who graduated from South Georgia Technical College in May with a degree in diesel mechanics and is now employed at Blanchard Machinery, headquartered here in Columbia. She also has a daughter Ragan who will be a rising Junior at Spring Hill High School and her husband Nate who is an executive at UPS in Columbia. She has been married to Nate for twenty-three years. In addition to her family and her work, she is involved in many church activities along with her family at St. Andrew’s Church of Christ. She is an avid Gamecock fan (good for her!) and enjoys attending Gamecock football games as well as both men’s and women’s basketball games. She and her family also enjoy a Fireflies game every now and then.

Thank you, Michelle, for all you do for the Mike Kelly Law Group! You are an excellent paralegal!