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Region’s growing economy spawns hot law fields
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Among its many practices, Mount Pleasant-based law firm Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman LLC goes after companies that pollute the environment.
Cleaning up oily water and chemically contaminated sites costs “a tremendous amount,” said Richardson, Patrick attorney Gordon Rhea. It is not just cleanup costs that must be weighed, but also the value of lost natural resources that must be considered when filing a claim.
Many states are hiring private law firms to file claims against polluters, said Rhea, adding that Richardson, Patrick represents New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in natural resource damage lawsuits.
The firm, known nationally for its litigation against tobacco companies, also represents plaintiffs in toxic torts—personal injury lawsuits resulting from polluted air, water or chemically hazardous work environments.
Environmental law is a hot field showing no signs of cooling off, Rhea said.
It is one of many law specialties sizzling in the Lowcountry where a thriving port, bustling real estate development and rising population of affluent retirees has fueled hot legal practices such as maritime law, residential and commercial real estate law, construction law and estate planning, according to Richard Gershon, dean of the Charleston School of Law, and Marta Borinsky, the school’s assistant dean of career services.
The Charleston School of Law
recently started the Maritime Law Institute, a consortium of students, professors and leading maritime lawyers and professionals from around the Southeast. Maritime law deals with all aspects of water-related incidents, from the liability of goods being shipped, to labor issues involving seamen, to recreational boating.
Intellectual property law is another burgeoning field, Borinsky noted. Atlanta-based Needle & Rosenberg, regarded as one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the Southeast with more than 30 attorneys, patent agents and science advisors, opened a Charleston office about 14 months ago.
Elder law, encompassing everything from retirement planning and long-term care insurance, to Medicaid and estate planning, is flourishing due to the region’s aging retirees, Borinsky said.
Because of Charleston’s historic buildings, historic preservation law is also a popular field, she added.
In terms of any fields of law cooling in the Lowcountry, Gershon said it is more a matter of some fields being hotter than others rather than particular fields dwindling.
Bankruptcy law usually ebbs and flows with the economy, and antitrust law thrives depending on the U.S. government’s determination to clamp down on monopolies, he said.
Looking ahead, Gershon sees Internet privacy as an up-and-coming hot law specialty.
And as new technologies arise, new fields of law defining the rules and regulations for those technologies will inevitably follow, he said.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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