Event Information

Beth Padgett was named Director of Lawyers Helping Lawyers at the SC Bar in August of 2022, after having served as Co-Director and Assistant Director since coming to LHL in December of 2010. Beth received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of South Carolina, a Master of Education from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Arts in Human Behavior and Conflict Management from Columbia College. She has completed numerous graduate hours in counseling and addiction studies at USC and holds a certification in drug and alcohol counseling through the South Carolina Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors. She recently completed certification as a Grief Specialist through University of Wisconsin at Madison Continuing Education Program. Mindfulness and other contemplative practices have been the foundation of her life and work for over twenty years. She completed the Mindfulness for Professionals Program at Duke Integrative Medicine Center in 2011, Phase 1 of Koru Mindfulness Teacher Certification, a mindfulness program for emerging adults developed at Duke University; a 200-hour yoga teacher training course in 2014, teacher training in Y12SR (Yoga for 12-Step Recovery) in 2015, and numerous continuing education hours in yoga, including laughter yoga and yoga for grief recovery, and mindfulness, including Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery.

Breon C.M. Walker earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a double major in marketing and management from the University of South Carolina Honors College in 2000. She earned her Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law in 2003, where she was the recipient of the Custer Tuggle Award for Excellence in Family Law.

Following her graduation from Emory, Breon clerked for Circuit Court Judge Reginald I. Lloyd in Columbia, S.C. She then practiced in both the civil and criminal divisions of the South Carolina Office of the Attorney General. Prior to joining The Stanley Law Group, Breon practiced with a large firm defending insurance carriers and their insureds in personal injury cases.

An experienced speaker, Breon has prepared and presented seminars to clients and colleagues on statutory compliance, case law developments and effective witness preparation.

Breon has been recognized by several organizations for her legal acumen including being recognized as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” from 2012-2019 and a Super Lawyer from 2020-present.  In 2013, Breon was selected by the National Bar Association as one of the “Nation’s Best Advocates: 40 Lawyers Under 40.”  Breon was also selected to the “Under 40 Hotlist” by Benchmark Litigation in 2016.  In 2020, Breon was named an Honoree of the South Carolina Leadership in Law Award by South Carolina Lawyers Weekly. 

Breon is an accomplished courtroom advocate with 15 years of experience as a trial lawyer.

Her areas of practice include:

Professional Memberships

• The South Carolina Bar
• President of the South Carolina Black Lawyers’ Association
• Richland County Bar Association (Co-Chair of the Young Lawyers’ Division from 2009-2014)
• South Carolina Association of Justice
• American Association for Justice
• Columbia (SC) Chapter of The Links, Inc
• Board of Directors of the 701 Center for Contemporary Art – Secretary
• Richland-Lexington Airport Commission
• Leadership Columbia (Class of 2011)

Joseph serves as General Counsel and Special Advisor to the President of Midlands Technical College where he provides legal advice and assistance to Midlands Technical College Commission, Executive Council, President, and other college officials on complex legal matters, policy questions, and operational procedures. As in-house counsel for MTC, Joseph manages outside litigation and outside counsel. He also currently serves as a lead adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Joseph was selected as the co-winner of the 2019 South Carolina Bar Young Lawyer of the Year Award, He volunteers as a Mock Trial attorney coach for his alma mater, Richland Northeast High School, and as a trial advocacy team coach at USC School of Law.

Joseph has provided advice and counsel to education sector clients on a broad range of issues, including Title VII, Title IX, Clery Act, ADA, FERPA, FMLA, employment law related issues (EEOC & SCHAC complaints), compliance, ethics, risk management, student related legal issues, and other relevant federal and state laws. He has represented clients in hearings, trials, depositions and mediations. He also has experience representing clients in administrative, state and federal courts, as well as internal investigations and evaluations.

At the conclusion of her clerkship, Ms. Walker accepted a job with the South Carolina Attorney General's office where she has previously worked as a law clerk. During her tenure at the Attorney General's Office, as both a prosecutor and law clerk, Ms. Walker worked on cases involving corrupt law enforcement officers, multi-county drug rings, and criminal street gangs. While prosecuting gang cases in Richland County, Meghan accepted a position as an Assistant Solicitor with the Fifth Judicial Circuit (Richland and Kershaw Counties). As an Assistant Solicitor, Meghan worked primarily in the Columbia, SC office. In her six years with the office, Ms. Walker tried twenty-five cases to jury verdict with her primary focus being on violent crime. 

In February of 2018, Ms. Walker was named Executive Director of the South Carolina State Ethics Commission. As Executive Director, Ms. Walker hopes to aid all South Carolinians in understanding the Ethics Act while fairly enforcing the Act.

Ms. Walker is a member of the South Carolina Bar and the Columbia Chapter of The Links, Inc.

Sheila Willis is a Partner in the Columbia office and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Affirmative Action and Federal Contract Compliance Practice Group. She is committed to finding practical, real world solutions to her clients’ employment law needs. She represents companies—large and small—as they navigate employment issues related to hiring, discipline, investigations, employment discrimination, unemployment, and other related issues. Sheila provides guidance to higher education institutions on Title IX Compliance and investigations  She has extensive experience providing compliance advice to federal contractors on affirmative action and OFCCP regulations and audits.  Sheila also has extensive experience working on collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and class actions under wage and hour state laws. Sheila also provides training for supervisors and managers on harassment, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) compliance, the Family Medical Leave Act, diversity and inclusion, and many other areas. 

Sheila is involved in various professional and community activities. She is a past president of both the South Carolina Women Lawyers’ Association (SCWLA) and the South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers (SCYLD) Division. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Columbia – Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the board of the National Conference of Women’s’ Bar Associations.  Sheila is active in the Richland County Bar, American Bar Association, and is a member of the Junior League of Columbia. 

Prior to attending law school, Sheila was a member of store leadership for a Fortune 500 retail company, providing employee supervision and managing a variety of employee issues related to wage and hour, workers’ compensation, discrimination issues, performance management, and other personnel issues. 

Sheila is a 2019 recipient of the Silver Compleat lawyer Award from the University of South Carolina School of Law Alumni Association. This award recognizes alumni who have made significant contributions to the legal profession and who exemplify the highest standard of professional competence, ethics, and integrity. 

She has also been named to the Columbia Regional Business Report’s list of 2018 Women of Influence, Columbia Business Monthly’s 2018 Best and Brightest 35 and Under,  Columbia Business Monthly’s Legal Elite of the Midlands in 2017 and the  American Bar Association’s  On the Rise – Top 40 under 40 in 2018.  She is also a 2018 South Carolina Super Lawyers – Rising Star and a 2019 recipient of the Leadership in the Law award.   She was awarded the Johnathon Jasper Wright Award by The Honorable Matthew J. Perry Chapter of the Black Law Students Association at the University of South Carolina School of Law, is a three-time recipient of the President’s Award a and a four-time recipient of the Start of the Quarter award from the South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers’ Division.

Stuart was a partner for over 30 years with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, where he was the founder of the firm’s nationally recognized pro bono program and its healthcare practice. He left Nelson Mullins last year to become Special Counsel with Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, PA., where he and the firm are working to build a criminal justice civil rights practice, with a particular project in partnership with Disability Rights South Carolina focused on conditions of confinement in county detention centers throughout SC for detainees with serious mental illness.

Experience

• Represents men, women, and children incarcerated in prisons and jails throughout South Carolina seeking injunctive relief for classes of individuals with serious mental illness, and damages in individual cases for violations of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Litigation includes actions challenging conditions in the Charleston County and Richland County detention centers and against the South Carolina Department of Corrections over the past twenty years. Stuart also has directed a project to develop and advocate for state legislative and regulatory criminal justice policy reform.

• Represented hospitals, health systems, physicians, and ancillary providers in a wide range of regulatory and litigation matters, including governmental investigations, hospital-physician disputes, certificates of need, compliance matters, medical staff credentialing, and contractual disputes

• Served on numerous task forces responsible for the development of recommendations concerning criminal justice and healthcare policy in South Carolina

• Engaged for over 40 years in the design and delivery of legal services programs, pro bono programs, and public-private partnerships to improve access to the courts for low- and moderate-income residents of South Carolina

Awards and Honors

• S.C. Appleseed 2016 Rev. Sen. Clementa C. Pinckney Award for Justice

• Columbia Business Monthly “Legal Elite,” Healthcare (2016)

• University of South Carolina 2015 Compleat Lawyer Award Platinum Recipient

• S.C. Lawyers Weekly 2015 Leadership in Law

• The Best Lawyers in America – Heath Care Law (1995 – 2022), Civil Rights (2022)

• South Carolina Super Lawyers, Health Law (2008-2022), Civil Rights (2022)

• Charles Dorsey Award, National Legal Aid and Defender Association (2007)

• South Carolina Bar Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year (2005)

Previous Selected Professional Experience

• Adjunct Professor of Health Law, University of South Carolina School of Law

• Appointed Clinical Adjunct Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of South Carolina School of Medicine

• Executive Director, S.C. Legal Services Association

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Former Chairman (1993 – 1994); Member, Hospital and Health Law Committee

• American Bar Association

• Fellow, American Bar Association Foundation

• South Carolina and Richland County Bar Associations

Community Involvement

• President, ACLU, SC Chapter Board of Directors

• Former Chairman, South Carolina Legal Services Board of Directors

• Former Chairman, South Carolina State Board of Education

• Former Chairman, Appleseed Legal Justice Center Board of Directors

• Former Chairman, American Red Cross, SC Blood Services Region Board of Directors

• Former Chairman, Columbia Academy

• Former Chairman, S.C. Access to Justice Task Force

Education

• University of South Carolina School of Law, Juris Doctor (1978), Recipient, American Jurisprudence Award in Civil Procedure, Member, Moot Court Bar

• Princeton Theological Seminary (1973)

• Erskine College, Bachelor of Arts degree, American History (1972)

Sutania A. Fuller, Assistant Solicitor for the 11th Circuit Solicitor's Office 

Sutania was born to Jamaican immigrants in Bronx, New York, and raised in Miami, Florida. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Florida in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and a minor in Business Administration. She then received a Juris Doctor in 2012 from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Sutania has passed the South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia bar exams. 

Sutania is a violent crime prosecutor handling the prosecution of cases in Lexington, Edgefield, Saluda, and McCormick counties. She is dedicated to prosecuting some of the toughest and violent cases in the 11th Circuit. Sutania is an active member of the South Carolina Bar, the South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers Division, and the ABA Young Lawyers Division. Sutania also serves as Vice Chair of the SC Bar’s Diversity Committee where she helped to spearhead the phenomenal Legacy Conversations series featuring distinguished jurists. Sutania also serves as the ABA YLD District 10 Representative, co-chairs the SC Bar Leadership Academy, and co-chairs the SC Bar YLD Diversity committee. 

Sutania’s numerous awards include the 2021 SC Bar YLD Young Lawyer of the Year, Service to Mankind Award presented by the Columbia Sertoma Club, the John R. Justice Community Leadership Award, the SC Bar YLD President’s Award three times, and multiple Star of the Quarter awards presented by the ABA YLD and the SC Bar YLD. 

Sutania has a passion and drive for everything that she does and for making an impact in the community. She enjoys educating young adults about the law and the consequences of their actions as she strives to positively impact their lives. She often tells these young adults that her goal in life is to reach them before she has to prosecute them. Sutania, along with four other female lawyers, organized a call to action to inspire SC lawyers across the state to stand against all forms of racial injustice. 

Outside of work and her life of service, you can find Sutania at home with her husband watching movies. She enjoys making memories with her husband, her parents, her four sisters, and her friends.