Event Information

o Born in Orangeburg, S.C.
o Raised in Walterboro, S.C.
o Graduated College of Charleston 1984.
o Graduated USC Law School 1987.
o Practiced at Sinkler & Boyd in Charleston 1987-2000, with primary focus in corporate and insurance defense litigation.
o Practiced at Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth & Detrick, in Walterboro 2000-2020, with practice primarily devoted to personal injury, medical malpractice, insurance coverage, and bad faith litigation.
o A partner at Clawson Fargnoli Utsey since 2021, with a focus on personal injury, medical malpractice, insurance coverage, and bad faith litigation as well as civil appeals. Also serves as Chancellor for The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.
o Memberships: SC Bar, Charleston County Bar Association, AAJ, SCAJ (past president), American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and American College of Trial Lawyers.
o Recognized as a South Carolina "Super Lawyer" in the practice area of insurance coverage and bad faith. 
 

Brandt Horton is a seasoned trial lawyer with nearly 20 years of experience in the courtroom. Moving from the defense to the plaintiff’s side, he joined Yarborough Applegate in 2025 to advocate on behalf of injured individuals and hold negligent corporations accountable. His experience as a defense attorney equips him with invaluable insights into the ways corporations and insurance companies evaluate cases, enabling him to craft innovative legal arguments and apply maximum pressure in the pursuit of just results for our clients.

After growing up in Mount Pleasant, Brandt attended the University of South Carolina for undergraduate studies and law school. He served as a Staff Attorney at the South Carolina Supreme Court before entering private practice in 2006. Brandt spent almost 18 years at a large, well-respected defense firm in Charleston, where he was a partner and shareholder. During his time as a defense attorney, Brandt primarily defended large trucking companies, product manufacturers, and bars and restaurants. He focused his practice on cases with significant exposure, typically those involving catastrophic injury and death. 

Brandt has tried both trucking and dram shop cases in both state and federal court. He is a previous member of the Trucking Industry Defense Association, South Carolina Trucking Association, and South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys’ Association, where he served as the chair of the Trucking Substantive Law Committee.

Admitted to practice

South Carolina, 2004

U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, 2006

Education

University of South Carolina School of Law, J.D., 2004

University of South Carolina, B.A., 2001

Memberships

Charleston County Bar Association

South Carolina Bar Association

American Bar Association

David Yarborough is a co-founder of the Charleston-based Yarborough Applegate law firm, which is dedicated to representing injured individuals in bad faith, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death cases.  He has prosecuted bad faith cases involving most forms of insurance including first- and third-party auto claims, life, long-term disability, long-term care, homeowners, commercial general liability, professional liability, alcohol liability, and E&O coverage.  On behalf of their clients, David and his law firm have achieved more than $50,000,000 in settlements, verdicts, and judgments outside or above policy-limits coverage because of insurance bad faith and negligent claim handling.  David is frequently associated by other attorneys to serve as lead trial counsel to handle cases involving bad faith, default scenarios, blown Tyger River or time-demand letters, and unreasonably denied claims.   

David Lail’s practice focuses on helping people that have experienced a life-changing event or crisis and found themselves with a real fight on their hands – a fight that many times involves powerful and connected interests on the other side. Regardless of the opposition, his approach remains the same – build the strongest case possible for trial and let the results speak for themselves.

Since he began practicing law in 2011, Lail has helped achieve over $168 million on behalf of injured clients - including over $50 million in jury verdicts and more than $60 million for victims of drunk driving.

Lail devotes much of his practice representing drunk driving victims in Dram Shop Litigation and has written and presented extensively on this niche practice area. Recently, Lail was a principal author of the book, “South Carolina Dram Shop Litigation: A Practice Guide” and was a contributing co-author of the Dram Shop Liability section of “South Carolina Damages, Second Edition” both published by the South Carolina Bar. In addition, Lail has conducted numerous presentations and CLEs on Dram Shop Litigation for entities such as the South Carolina Bar, the City of Charleston Police Department, the South Carolina Association for Justice (SCAJ), The National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), The Charleston School of Law, and Strafford Publications, Inc. Lail was also interviewed as part of the South Carolina Business Review’s report, “Dram Shop” Risk on the Rise in SC.

Lail is a member of The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 and the South Carolina Super Lawyers Rising Star list. Lail is a Board Member and Executive Committee Member of the South Carolina Association for Justice, a member of the American Association for Justice, and he is also licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.

David received a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Kentucky in 2001 and then moved to Charleston in 2006 after a career with a Fortune 500 company. Next, David received an M.B.A. from The Citadel, highest honors, and a J.D., cum laude, from the Charleston School of Law where he was an Associate Articles Editor of the Charleston Law Review, a member of the Charleston School of Law Moot Court Board, and a Teaching Fellow in the Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing Department. During his legal study, David received CALI Awards for the highest law school grade in: Torts, Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing I & II, and Pleadings & Practice.

David lives in Charleston with his wife, Lauren, and their two children, Evie and Hugh.

David is currently a Partner at Yarborough Applegate LLC.

Jamie is a partner at the Hood Law Firm, LLC in Charleston, SC where he focuses on serving as local and national trial counsel for companies and individuals in matters ranging from catastrophic injury to complex commercial litigation. Jamie's practice has been focused on trial work for nearly twenty years. Jamie is a Past President of the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys and Past President of the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association. He has also served on the DRI Board of Directors. Jamie is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, the International Association of Defense Counsel, and Lawyers for Civil Justice. Jamie has been recognized in Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers. Jamie has extensive experience in defending individuals, companies, and insurers in all phases of underlying and bad faith litigation. 

John Blanton O'Neal IV is a partner at the Hood Law Firm, LLC.  He focuses his practice on civil litigation, construction litigation, insurance law, environmental law, commercial litigation and products liability litigation. Blanton has more than twenty years of litigation experience in state and federal courts in South Carolina.  Blanton is also a certified mediator. Blanton attended the Georgia Institute of Technology where he received his B.C.E., in 1996.  He then earned his J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 2000.

PRACTICE AREAS
Construction litigation
Insurance law
Commercial litigation
Products liability
Environmental law
Mediator/Arbitrator

EDUCATION
J.D., University of South Carolina School of Law, 2000
B.C.E, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996

COURT ADMISSIONS
State Bar of South Carolina
U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS
South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association
Defense Research Institute
Charleston County Bar Association
South Carolina Bar Association
American Bar Association
American Society of Civil Engineers

HONORS
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review RatingSM by Martindale-Hubbell®
South Carolina Super Lawyers, 2020-2025
South Carolina Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2012-2014
Best Lawyers in America, 2016-2025
 

Reynolds Blankenship is a plaintiffs’ lawyer at Yarborough Applegate in Charleston, South Carolina.  He focuses his practice on insurance bad faith, wrongful death, and catastrophic personal injury.  After law school, Reynolds clerked for Justice Costa M. Pleicones of the South Carolina Supreme Court.  Reynolds thereafter went into a general-litigation practice, and then an insurance-defense practice, before becoming a full-time plaintiffs’ lawyer and helping clients recover more than $50,000,000 in verdicts and settlements.  He has tried dozens of cases in courts throughout the state, including the Court of Common Pleas, the Court of General Sessions, Probate Court, Family Court, Administrative Law Court, Magistrate’s Court, and Municipal Court.  Reynolds has also represented clients in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.  He is a member of the South Carolina Association for Justice and the American Association for Justice.