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Persuasive litigator Aaron Wallace works diligently to represent his client’s interests. He analyzes the facts of each case to advocate on his client’s behalf and enjoys finding creative solutions to complex problems.

Before joining Hedrick Gardner, Aaron practiced at another Columbia, SC firm practicing labor and employment law, criminal law, and personal injury litigation. During law school, he served as treasurer for the Black Law Students Association. He also participated in the Judicial Observation and Experience program and worked as a law clerk for a plaintiff’s law firm. Aaron later completed a clerkship for the Honorable DeAndrea G. Benjamin, Circuit Court Judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit.

Aaron values community involvement. He is involved in the North Columbia Business Association where he served as marketing director for several years. He also served the South Carolina Black Lawyers Association as a member of the executive committee and as marketing chairman and webmaster. He is a Cub Scout Scoutmaster and has coached little league basketball and baseball. A member of St. John Baptist Church, he teaches Sunday School and Children’s Church. When not serving his community, Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife and their four children.

D. Nichole Davis is a personal injury attorney at McWhirter, Bellinger & Associates, P.A. in Lexington, South Carolina. Prior to joining the firm, she served as Risk Management Director at the South Carolina Bar and as Director of the South Carolina Supreme Court’s Lawyer Mentoring Program. She litigated child abuse and neglect cases on behalf of the South Carolina Department of Social Services, and she clerked for the Honorable Clifton Newman.

Nichole is a recipient of the 2023 South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Leadership in Law Award and the University of South Carolina School of Law 2018 Silver Compleat Lawyer Award. She is a member of Leadership South Carolina class of 2019, a member of the ABA Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy Class of 2019, and a member of the South Carolina Bar Leadership Academy Class of 2015. In 2016, she was named South Carolina Bar Young Lawyer of the Year.

She is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Professionalism, the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, the planning committee for the ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility, the South Carolina Black Lawyers Association, the South Carolina Bar Ethics Advisory Committee, the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association, the South Carolina Bar Professional Responsibility Committee, the Society for Diversity, Phi Delta Phi International Legal Honor Society, the South Carolina Bar Judicial Qualifications Committee, and the University of South Carolina Alumni Association.

Nichole is an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, a Certified Diversity Professional (CDP)®, and a certified family court mediator.

Hannah Stetson is an Associate Attorney in Turner Padget’s Columbia, South Carolina office, where she is a member of the Workplace Litigation Team.

Her practice focuses on representing employers and management in various litigation, administrative, and counseling matters. She defends employers in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission (SCHAC), and the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW). She frequently counsels employers on best policies and practices to help limit or avoid potential liability.

Hannah is also a member of Turner Paget’s statewide professional license defense team, where she defends professionals in disciplinary matters before various professional licensing boards regulated by the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. When a complaint is initiated against your professional license, there are multiple collateral issues to consider including: current and future employment, the impact of the current allegation upon your ability to advance your education and your career, potential or pending criminal charges, even questions concerning fitness for practice. Failing to consider and prepare for collateral concerns, or improper timing related to a single issue can have lasting consequences. Hannah and the other members of the Turner Padget professional license defense team understand the importance of a strategic, well-planned defense, and what actions to take before a hearing to ensure that you are well-prepared. Hannah can handle your professional license defense related needs and will strive to protect your right to continued practice.

In addition to her labor and employment and professional licensing defense, Hannah also practices personal injury defense, premises liability defense, and general business and commercial litigation, including drafting and litigating restrictive covenants.

Following law school, Hannah served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable James A. Beaty, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She subsequently served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Margaret B. Seymour in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Her clerkship experiences provide her with a unique perspective of the litigation process that she is able to utilize in defending, advising, and counseling her clients.

John Merrell is a shareholder in Ogletree's Greenville, South Carolina office. John counsels employers on a range of labor and employment law issues, with a focus on traditional labor law, including unfair labor practice and representation proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, labor arbitrations, and training management on positive employee relations. 

Jonathan Wall is a partner with Higgins Benjamin, PLLC, in Greensboro, NC, where he specializes in employment law litigation, including class actions.  He graduated from Duke University and Washington & Lee University School of Law, and was certified as a mediator in 2001.  He has chaired the Labor & Employment Law sections of both the North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, as well being recognized in multiple years by Legal Elite and Super Lawyers.  He has served on Elon University School of Law’s Board of Advisors since the school opened in 2006, and he also currently serves on the Board of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation.   

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.