Kevin Hall is the Managing Partner of Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP’s Columbia, South Carolina office, Chair of the Firm’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and a member of the Firm Management Committee.
Kevin is a skilled commercial litigator and political law attorney. He has almost 30 years of experience in complex commercial litigation, administrative law, education law, and First Amendment law. Kevin’s practice includes representation of plaintiffs and defendants in regulatory and business disputes involving claims for breach of contract, business torts, unfair trade practices, unfair competition, commercial disparagement, antitrust, and related business claims. He has represented clients from a variety of industries including, but not limited to, construction, electric and gas, telecommunications, software, healthcare, infrastructure, legal services, accounting services, and financial services. He has obtained multi-million dollar verdicts or settlements in cases involving claims for breach of fiduciary duty, unfair trade practices, breach of contract, breach of contract accompanied by a fraudulent act, and other business torts.
As defense counsel, Kevin has successfully defended utilities, health care companies, telecommunications providers, and insurance companies in class actions, defeating class certification in some cases and achieving dismissal in others. He has represented a variety of businesses including law firms, securities dealers, utilities, retailers, finance companies, real estate companies, and pharmaceutical companies in business tort and commercial contract disputes, as well as in shareholder disputes and oppression claims asserted by minority shareholders. Kevin has represented securities brokers and dealers in civil investigations initiated by the South Carolina Attorney General.
Kevin also has represented multiple clients in constitutional challenges arising from state and federal campaign finance laws and state criminal domestic violence statutes. He served as successful amicus counsel for the South Carolina Equality Coalition in its challenge to the constitutionality of South Carolina’s criminal domestic violence statutes. Kevin also represented South Carolina students and LGBT advocacy organizations in a successful equal protection challenge of South Carolina's anti-LGBT curriculum provisions included in the state’s Comprehensive Health Education Act of 1988. On the political law front, Kevin has successfully represented multiple statewide elected officials in cases in the original jurisdiction of the South Carolina Supreme Court, before legislative ethics committees, and in impeachment proceedings brought by the South Carolina House of Representatives.
In 2002, Kevin was appointed by Governor Mark Sanford as Co-Chair of the Governor's Task Force on Government Restructuring and Campaign Finance Reform. In 2004, Governor Sanford appointed Kevin to serve as Chairman of South Carolina Retirement Systems Investment Panel. The Investment Panel (n/k/a the Investment Commission) has exclusive authority for investing and managing the more than $25 billion held in trust for the beneficiaries of the state’s various pension plans. In 2007, Kevin was appointed by Governor Sanford to serve as his representative on the Broadband Technology and Communications Study Committee.
Kevin is active in South Carolina politics and public policy. He has served as legal counsel to the South Carolina Republican Party, Governor Mark Sanford, Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, Senator Jim DeMint, and Representative Trey Gowdy, among others. Kevin served as co-chair of the Republican Party's Victory 2008 Committee, and was elected as an alternate delegate in 2008 to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
In 1987, Kevin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies, magna cum laude, from the South Carolina Honors College of the University of South Carolina. In 1990, he earned a Juris Doctor degree, with highest honors, from Emory University School of Law where he was inducted into The Order of the Coif. From 1990-91, Kevin served as law clerk to The Honorable Robert F. Chapman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Presentations and Publications
- The Growing Role of Data Protection & Privacy, Retirement Industry Trust Association’s Spring Conference, April 2023
- Womble Bond Dickinson US Shares Best Practices for Workplace Inclusion, World Trademark Review (June 17, 2021)
- The Mansfield Rule, SCDTAA (March 25, 2021)
- Pro Bono and DEI Webinar, National Business Institute (January 7, 2021)
- Beyond the “Litigation” Mindset: How to Effectuate Lasting Change Inside and Outside the Courtroom in Hostile Jurisdictions, The LGBT Bar Association, CLE Seminar (July 31, 2020)
- Boosting Diversity: Is Your Outside Counsel Mansfield Certified?, 2019 Annual Meeting of the Association of Corporate Counsel, CLE Seminar (October 29, 2019)
- Pushing Back Against “No Promo Homo” Laws and Other Restrictions on LGBTQ-Affirming Curricular Content, The LGBT Bar Association, CLE Seminar (August 8, 2019)
- Red State Rebuttal - Advocating for LGBTQ Clients in Conservative Regions, The LGBT Bar Association, CLE Seminar (August 8, 2019)
- Does Title VII’s Ban on “Sex” Discrimination Prohibit Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity?, The South Carolina Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, CLE Seminar (June 20, 2019)
- It's Not Over - True Equality is Elusive, Carolina Equality Alliance, Annual Pride Luncheon Keynote Speaker (October 17, 2018)
- Boosting Diversity: Is Your Outside Counsel Mansfield Certified?, The South Carolina Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, CLE Seminar (August 29, 2018)
- A Survey of the Fourth Circuit's Developing Government-Speech Jurisprudence, 61 S.C. L. Rev. 549 (2010) (co-authored with M. Todd Carroll)
- Panelist, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: Its Tradition, Its Jurisprudence, and Its Future, South Carolina Law Review Symposium (2009)
- Distinguished Speaker and Panelist, State Constitutional Reform in the New South, Law & Society Symposium, sponsored by The Riley Institute at Furman University in conjunction with the Charleston School of Law (2009)
- Year 2000 for Lawyers: A Legal Primer on The Millennium Bug, South Carolina Lawyer (1998)(co-authored with James K. Lehman)
Civic and Professional Activities
- Member, South Carolina Equality Coalition Litigation Task Force
- Former Chair, Sisters of Charity Foundation
- Former Member, Catholic Charities Board of Directors for the Diocese of Charleston
- Former Chair, Voices for South Carolina’s Children (n/k/a Children’s Trust Fund of South Carolina)
- Co-Chair, South Carolina Republican Party’s Victory 2008 Campaign
- Member, South Carolina’s Broadband Technology and Communications Study Committee, 2007
- Former Chair, South Carolina Retirement Systems Investment Commission
- Co-Chair, Governor’s Task Force on Government Restructuring and Campaign Finance Reform, 2002
Honors and Awards
- Rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (BL Rankings), Commercial Litigation, 2003-present
- Recognized in Columbia Business Monthly’s Legal Elite, Appellate, Business Litigation, Corporate Investigations, Education, Product Liability, Professional Liability, 2021, 2023
- Super Lawyers Honoree in the fields of Business Litigation, Government Relations, Utilities, South Carolina Super Lawyers magazine (Thomson Reuters), 2008-2020
- The Best Lawyers in the Midlands, Columbia Metropolitan magazine, 2013-present
- Diversity and Inclusion Awards Honoree, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly, 2021
Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Successfully represented South Carolina Senate in defense of COVID-based attacks on the constitutionality of South Carolina’s election laws; won emergency stay in United States Supreme Court to preserve South Carolina’s witness requirement for absentee ballot
- Won defense verdict and attorneys’ fee award in a software implementation case after a multi-week jury trial in federal court that involved business tort and contract claims
- Won First Amendment challenge in federal court on behalf of a public interest group and successfully struck down portions of the South Carolina State Ethics Code
- Won verdict of approximately $2 million in a multi-week jury trial in federal court on behalf of a lumber company seeking recovery from a water treatment company
- Won approximately $30 million judgment in favor of pharmaceutical manufacturer in a construction/design failure case after a multi-week nonjury trial
- Successfully defended Governor of South Carolina against ethics charges before the South Carolina House Ethics Committee and in the South Carolina Supreme Court
- Successfully defended Governor of South Carolina against ethics charges and impeachment proceedings in the South Carolina House of Representatives and before the South Carolina Supreme Court
- Successfully defended South Carolina state agency in federal court against a constitutional challenge of "I Believe" license plate authorized by the South Carolina General Assembly
- Won and successfully defended on appeal a grant of summary judgment in a class action lawsuit brought against a state-owned public utility
- Successfully defended the constitutionality of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act on behalf of the media in litigation before the South Carolina Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
- Successfully defended the authority of state and county election agencies to conduct South Carolina’s Presidential Preference Primary in 2012 and thereafter
- Successfully defended the Governor in the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and preserved Governor’s authority to convene the General Assembly on “extraordinary occasions” pursuant to South Carolina Constitution Art. IV, Sec. 19
- Successfully defended the constitutional authority of the Governor to veto specific appropriations contained within the General Assembly’s annual appropriations bill
- Presented successful amicus brief in South Carolina Supreme Court on behalf of LGBT advocacy organization arguing for equal treatment of LGBT individuals pursuant to state criminal domestic violence statutes
- Represented South Carolina students and LGBT advocacy organizations in a successful equal protection challenge of South Carolina's anti-LGBT curriculum provisions included in the state’s Comprehensive Health Education Act of 1988
