Name Organization Speaking At
April Sampson
April Sampson graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1995 and from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1998. She became a member of the South Carolina Bar in November of 1998. Mrs. Sampson began her legal career with Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities where she handled legal matters for those with physical and mental disabilities.
Ashby Jones and Associates LLC
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Brian Godfrey
Richland County Sheriff's Department
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Chelsea Clark
Gargiulo / Rudnick, LLP
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D. Nichole Davis
D. Nichole Davis is a leadership consultant, practicing attorney, adjunct law professor, and nationally respected speaker who helps leaders shift from performative to purposeful. With a background in legal ethics, risk management, and organizational culture, she equips clients to lead with clarity, accountability, and emotional intelligence.
As the founder of D. Nichole Davis Consulting, she partners with companies, nonprofits, and academic institutions to build people-first leadership systems rooted in trust, transparency, and psychological safety. Her Experience-Driven Leadership framework and Reflection to Impact scenario decks are used across industries to strengthen decision-making, culture, and communication.
A three-time stroke survivor, Nichole brings hard-earned insight to every room she enters. Her keynote series, From Breakdown to Breakthrough, challenges audiences to redefine leadership through the lens of lived experience, resilience, and courage.
Nichole continues to teach at the University of South Carolina School of Law and has served as an advisor to the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism. She holds a J.D. and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certificate. She has delivered more than 65 presentations on leadership, ethics, bias, and workplace wellness across national stages.
When she’s not teaching or consulting, she mentors emerging leaders and helps high performers reconnect with what matters most.
D. Nichole Davis Consulting, LLC
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Jack Cohoon
Jack E. Cohoon is a partner at Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, P.A. He focuses his legal practice on employment law. Prior to joining the firm in January 2020, Jack worked as a legal aid attorney at South Carolina Legal Services for nearly 14 years, where he focused primarily on employment-related legal issues affecting low-income South Carolinians. He is the recipient of Martindale-Hubbells AV Preeminent Rating, the Richland County Bars Civic Star Award for community involvement, and the South Carolina Access to Justice Commissions Ellen Hines Smith Legal Services Attorney of the Year Award.
Jack is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law. He holds a Bachelors degree in History and Political Science from the University of Georgia. When not practicing law, Jack hikes, bikes, and camps with his family and volunteers as a scout leader with his son's scout troop
Admissions
U.S.
District Court, District of South Carolina, 2007
South
Carolina, 2006
Education
University
of South Carolina School of Law, Juris Doctor
President,
USC Chapter of Just Democracy, an organization of law students dedicated
to protecting voting rights
Research
Editor, South Eastern Environmental Law Journal
University
of Georgia, Bachelor of Arts with Honors, History and Political Science
Associations
South
Carolina Bar
Employment
and Labor Law Section
Continuing
Legal Education Planner
Richland
County Bar Association
Lexington
County Bar Association
Legal
Eagles of the Indian Waters Council, Boy Scouts of America
Honors & Awards
AV
Preeminent® Rating, Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings, 2021 to
present
Martindale-Hubbell
Platinum Client Champion Award, 2022 to present
Best
Lawyers in America, honored in Litigation – Labor and Employment Law,
2022-present; honored in Employment Law – Individuals, 2024-present
South
Carolina Super Lawyers, 2025 to present
“Legal
Elite of the Midlands”, 2020 to present by Columbia Business Monthly in
Labor and Employment Law
Alumnus
of the Year, Indian Waters Council of Scouting America, 2024
Civic
Star Award, Richland County Bar Association, 2021
Cubmaster
of the Year, Chinquapin District of the Indian Waters Council, Boy Scouts
of America, 2018
Ellen
Hines Smith Legal Services Attorney of the Year, awarded by the South
Carolina Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission and the South Carolina
Bar Foundation, 2012
South
Carolina Legal Services Young Attorney of the Year, 2009
Representative Cases
Obtained
a declaratory judgment finding that the Commission of the Department of
Disabilities and Special Needs had violated the South Carolina Freedom of
Information Act by holding unlawful secret meetings and that the
Commission’s vote to terminate the State Director was therefore void.
Recovered
a federal retiree’s disability retirement benefits in an appeal to the
Merit Systems Protection Board.
Led
effort to obtain the first-ever vacatur and expungement of a prostitution
conviction pursuant to the state’s new Human Trafficking law.
Reaching
a significant settlement in a Title VII case for a client from Venezuela
who was discriminated against due to national origin.
Brought
a federal civil rights challenge to a law that required people with
certain criminal convictions to pay $50 for reissuance of an ID that was
free to everyone else. The state Legislature subsequently removed the fee.
Obtained
a record correction and significant financial settlement in a Fair Credit
Reporting Act suit for a client who had been denied a job opportunity due
to an erroneous background report.
Brought
a successful administrative challenge to the South Carolina Law
Enforcement Division’s practice of listing civil contempt for non-payment
of child support on criminal records.
Obtained
reversal and remand in the Court of Appeals of an Administrative Law Court
decision in an unemployment benefits case that contained improper findings
of fact regarding the timeliness of a worker’s pro se appeal.
Successfully
defended a favorable Administrative Law Court decision before the South
Carolina Court of Appeals, preserving a client’s eligibility for
unemployment benefits.
Challenged
a discriminatory South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles policy that
denied commercial driver’s licenses to legal immigrants, obtaining a
license for a client.
Obtained Court of Appeals affirmance of the family court’s incorporation of a partial settlement agreement, apportionment of a worker’s compensation award, and the valuation of marital property. Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, PA
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John Nichols
John Nichols received a BS in mathematics from Francis Marion College in 1978 and a JD from the USC School of Law in 1985. He first worked with Rogers & Koon focusing primarily on property litigation. In 1986, the SC Court of Appeals hired John as a staff attorney, and he became chief staff counsel in 1 993. John also served at times as a law clerk for Chief Judge Alex M. Sanders, Jr., Judge Randall T. Bell, and Acting Judge C. Bruce Littlejohn. From 1996 until 2000, John worked with Suggs & Kelly, primarily on pharmaceutical mass tort litigation around the country. In 2000, John and Marti Bluestein founded Bluestein & Nichols which is now Bluestein Thompson & Sullivan. John's primary focus was on appellate practice, general tort litigation and representing attorneys before the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. In 2017, the Supreme Court of SC appointed John to serve as Disciplinary Counsel and he took over the office in January 2018.
John is admitted to practice in South Carolina's state and federal courts as well as the United States Coutts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit and the Federal Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
From 2003 to 2018, John served on the SC Board of Law Examiners by Supreme Court appointment. In 2012 Governor Nikki Haley appointed John to the SC Commission on Indigent Defense and was reappointed by Governor Henry McMaster. From 2013 to 2017 John served as special counsel to the SC House Ethics Committee and the SC Senate Ethics Committee.
John has spoken at seminars for a number of groups, including the SC Bar, the SC Judicial Branch, SCAJ/SCTLA, the SCIWA, the SCDTAA, the SC Public Defenders Association, and the SC Prosecution Commission. He served on the Education Committee for the ABA's Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys and assisted the SC Judicial Branch in developing orientation seminars for new members of the SC Appellate Court, Circuit Court and Family Court as well as for attorneys employed by the Judicial Branch.
John has also authored, co-authored or edited several books and other publications for the SC Bar or Thomson Reuters (West). From 1995 through 2000, John served as editor of "What's New," the case summaries prepared by law professors for the South Carolina Lawyer magazine (SC Bar). He also served on the South Carolina Lawyer magazine's Editorial Board, serving as Edi tor-in-Chief from 2004 through 2006. John also served as editor of "The Bulletin," the magazine for the SCAJ.
John serves on USC's "B-Ball - Coaches versus Cancer" committee and is an officer with the Columbia USC Tip-Off Club. He enjoys painting, playing guitar, traveling and hiking with his wife, Michelle, and spending time with daughter, Beth, and grandson, Max.
Bluestein Thompson Sullivan LLC
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Markesha Miller
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Nekki Shutt
A
certified specialist in labor and employment law, Nekki Shutt has been involved
in the employment / human resources field for more than 35 years, beginning
with her work in the human resources department of a publicly-traded property
and casualty insurance company. Nekki eventually became the company’s corporate
recruiter, responsible for hiring approximately 225 employees on an annual basis
as well as managing its temporary workforce. This is her 29 th year practicing law.
While
Nekki earned her juris doctor at the University of South Carolina School of
Law, she worked as a graduate assistant in what is now the Master’s in Human
Resources Program at the USC Darla Moore School of Business. She also clerked
for the law firm that represented the insurer where she had previously been
employed. Since then, Nekki has built on her human resources experience and
developed a civil litigation practice with an emphasis on employee benefits
(ERISA) and employment law. From 2000 to 2005, she also was an adjunct
professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, teaching a course
for third-year law students entitled “Diversity and the Law,” emphasizing
social justice issues involving race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities,
and the poor. More than six years ago, Nekki, Malissa Burnette, and
Kathleen McDaniel founded Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, PA, a progressive law
firm with employment law, civil rights, and civil litigation as its focus. Notably, the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law recently selected their law firm as the recipient of 2024 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Distinguished Service Award.
Nekki frequently
has received professional recognition and honors. She is secretary of the SC
Bar’s Board of Governors and in the House of Delegates. She chaired the SC Bar’s Labor and Employment
Section in 2010, and has served on its
executive committee for 15 plus
years. For the past five years, she has
been named “Lawyer of the Year” in ERISA Litigation by peers through Best
Lawyers. She was the 2018 Recipient of the Civic Star Award from the
Richland County Bar Association. She was a 2016 honoree by South Carolina
Lawyers Weekly for Leadership in the Law. The University of South Carolina School of Law Alumni Association awarded her the James Petigru Compleat Lawyer Award, Silver Medallion in 2005. Her peers have selected her for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2010 to present in the field of labor and employment law. She’s also continuously educates others in her field through her writing and seminar presentations like “Modern Family I and II” on protecting LGBT clients, “Against the Wind: a history of the civil rights movement in South Carolina as told through case law and testimony,” and 10 years of the annual Fundamentals of Employment Law in South Carolina, one of the SC Bar’s Essential Series. Nekki authored the ERISA chapters in the Labor and Employment Law for South Carolina Lawyer 2007, 2011, 2019, and 2024 editions. She also is the author of a chapter on employment law for Paralegal Survival Guide, published by South Carolina Bar Association in 2010.
Nekki
was one of the lead attorneys in Condon v. Haley , the 2014 federal
lawsuit which made South Carolina the 35 state to recognize marriage equality
in the country.
Burnette Shutt & McDaniel, PA
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