Driving Directions

Local attorney sworn in as president of S.C. Bar
By Tom Langhorne

With many of the state's leading legal dignitaries looking on, Spartanburg attorney Ken Anthony was sworn in Friday as president of the South Carolina Bar.

Anthony, 49, is just the eighth Spartanburg County resident to head the Bar since its origin in 1884, the most recent being T. Emmet Walsh (1987-88) and Louis P. Howell (1976-77).

Friday's swearing-in ceremony, presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal, occurred in the basement of Wofford College's Burwell Building. Among the more than 100 attorneys and judges on hand were Supreme Court justice Costa M. Pleicones and Spartanburg resident Bruce Littlejohn, a former Supreme Court chief justice.

The day's activities at Wofford also included the annual meeting of the Bar's House of Delegates, the Board of Governors' monthly meeting and a two-hour reception honoring Anthony in the Veranda Room of the college's Richardson Building. About 100 people attended the reception.

Since being admitted to the Bar in 1978 following graduation from the University of South Carolina Law School, Anthony has built a reputation as one of the state's most accomplished plaintiff's attorneys.

Anthony was one of just six Spartanburg lawyers to be selected by a survey of their peers for inclusion in "The Best Lawyers in America 2002-2003." The nationally recognized legal referral guide is published biennially by Woodward/White, Inc., an Aiken-based publishing and research company.

Among Anthony's high-profile clients are Spartanburg developer Arthur Cleveland, who he shepherded through negotiations with City Council over the Renaissance Project.

The new Bar president has served on the University of South Carolina School of Law's Board of Advisors, the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association's Board of Governors, and the editorial board of ABA/BNA Lawyers Manual on Professional Responsibility. A Life Fellow of the South Carolina Bar Foundation, Anthony is a former adjunct professor at Wofford College and an author and frequent lecturer for continuing legal education courses.

In brief remarks after the swearing-in ceremony, Anthony left little doubt that he will use his tenure as Bar president to enhance the influence of small-town lawyers in the organization.

"The Bar belongs to each lawyer in this state, whether they're in Pickens, or Bamberg, or wherever," Anthony said.

In an interview conducted shortly before his swearing-in, Anthony said the Bar is dominated by attorneys in Columbia and Charleston.

"Those lawyers are carrying more than their fair share of the burden," he said. "I hope to show lawyers in smaller communities that they can be a part of Bar activities without abandoning their law practices."

Bar activities often are held in Columbia, Anthony said, and lawyers in other areas of the state find it difficult or impossible to attend.

"But I've participated in a lot of Bar activities using e-mail and the telephone," he said. "It can be done."

The South Carolina Bar has 10,881 members, according to its staff. Of those members, 59 percent practice law in places other than Columbia and Charleston.

Anthony has named several other goals for his one-year term as Bar president, including sending attorneys into high schools to provide students with basic legal knowledge.

The new Bar president also will encourage members to expand participation in high school mock trials and to develop more youth courts across the state. He has said the Bar also should assist the USC School of Law in its search for a new full-time dean.


Tom Langhorne can be reached at 562-7221 or at tom.langhorne@shj.com.