About Your Mediator
I have been licensed to practice law in South Carolina since November, 1973, and I have been involved in the practice of family law since January, 1974.
I was a Family Court Judge from July, 1998, until January 1, 2009, at which time I retired from the bench to begin and maintain a full time, statewide mediation/arbitration practice. I have been an instructor at the Orientation School for New Family Court Judges from 2004 through 2008, and in 2005 – 2006, was the president of the South Carolina Conference of Family Court Judges, and the chairperson of the South Carolina Family Court Judges Advisory Committee to the Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. In 2004, I had the privilege of being appointed as the chairperson of the Family Court Judges subcommittee of the Chief Justice’s Task Force on Trial Court Operations.
Some years ago I broadened my professional practice to include a family court litigation support service for my fellow family law colleagues; and in January, 2018, I formed an early neutral evaluation service in association of two retired South Carolina family court judges, and as of November, 2020, that association now includes a third retired family court judge. From May, 2017, until December, 2023, I was privileged to have been a member of the South Carolina Children’s Law Center’s mock trial training team for caseworkers employed by the South Carolina Department of Social Services; and in 2019, I became a guest lecturer for the USC Upstate Child Protection Training Center.
I have been a frequent presenter, with prepared materials, at statewide South Carolina Bar/CLE Division seminars, at the Annual South Carolina Solicitors’ Conference and at local Bar-related programs, speaking on a variety of family law topics. For 2005 and 2006, I was the program coordinator and presenter for the Family Court Judges’ seminars at the Annual Judicial Conference.
I am presently a certified family court mediator with the State of South Carolina.
Mission Statement
Having practiced family law in South Carolina for over 47 years (10 of which as a family court judge), I believe I have acquired some insight to state the obvious: there are only two ways to resolve any dispute, whether the dispute involves an action for divorce, child custody and visitation, the payment of family support or alimony, or related family law matters – the parties may either settle the matter between or among themselves, or they must turn to a third party to decide the outcome for them.
And I have often wondered why parties (spouses, relatives, couples, etc.) would choose to have complete strangers make often critically important decisions which would affect the parties’ lives perhaps for years to come, especially when we now have available a variety of alternatives which would allow these parties the perfect opportunity to mutually resolve their dispute.
As your mediator, it is my mission to provide you with a setting, and to establish a process, which create the greatest opportunity for a meaningful and successful outcome of your dispute. A process in which you are fully engaged and, to the greatest degree possible, one which you control.
Mediation Services
Mediation is an opportunity. Mediation is a proven process which affords the parties an opportunity to resolve their differences beyond and outside the pressures of a family courtroom proceeding, and it provides parties with control over the outcome and a quality of resolution which best supports the parties’ long-term emotional and financial well-being.