Event Information

Chris Mills is a sole practitioner in Columbia, focusing on plaintiff's civil rights litigation and federal criminal defense at both the trial and appellate levels. He and his paralegal, Leigh Anne Wills, have litigated against law enforcement/correctional officer misconduct for thirty-five years.  Early work involved successful class action litigation against the South Carolina Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice.  Currently, the practice concentrates on representing individuals with issues involving illegal arrests/prosecutions, use of excessive force, and unconstitutional conduct towards the incarcerated. Chris received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the College of Charleston in 1980 and his Juris Doctorate from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1986. He is an active member of the South Carolina Bar Civil Rights Task Force, the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the National Police Accountability Project.  When not immersed in First, Fourth, and Eighth Amendment issues, he enjoys soccer, cycling in the Midlands and hiking the trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Judge Lydon graduated from Clemson University and received her law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. After law school, she practiced with Nexsen, Pruet, Jacobs and Pollard. She left Nexsen Pruet in 1990 to join the United States Attorney's Office, where she prosecuted cases primarily in the areas of public corruption and white-collar crime. After leaving the United States Attorney's Office, Judge Lydon went into private practice with former U.S. Attorney E. Bart Daniel and Scott Schools.  In 2003, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster asked Judge Lydon to be the Chief of the State Grand Jury, a division of the South Carolina Attorney General's Office modeled after the federal system and responsible for prosecuting complex cases throughout the state.
From 2005-2018, Judge Lydon was in private practice handling mostly white-collar criminal cases.
Judge Lydon was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina on May 24, 2018. 
Judge Lydon was sworn in as a federal judge on December 12,2019.
 

•        2020 Matthew J. Perry Civility Award, Richland County Bar Association

•        Cochair for April 2023 Roadways to the Bench Event in Columbia, SC

•        Hilton Head Bar Association Super CLE speaker on Tips from the Bench (2/7/22)

•        Leadership South Carolina speaker on Implicit Bias: How it affects decisions (9/9/21, 9/9/20)

•        2020 SC Bar Convention panelist for Corporate, Banking, and Securities Section on Implicit Bias and How to Address it to Better Serve Your Clients (1/24/20)

•        2019 Annual Judicial Conference: Staff Attorneys and Law Clerks session panelist on Implicit Bias (9/17/19)

•        USC School of Law Employment Law Society, Inaugural Speaker on Federal Employment Practice (2/25/19)

•        Women in Law/Richland County Bar Association Panel Speaker (2/20/19)

•        2019 South Carolina Women Lawyers Association Annual Conference Federal Practice: Advice from the Bench (11/8/19)

•        South Carolina Supreme Court Institute: Teacher Training on Federal Courts (2017–present)

•        Federal Bar Association Summer Associates Seminar at Matthew J. Perry Courthouse, Presenter (2007–2019)

•        Bridge the Gap, Federal Court Practice in South Carolina, Speaker (three times per year 2010–2017)

•        Carolinas Business Litigation Year in Review: A View from the Bench (2/9/18)

•        Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Lecturer of five-part Series on Faith and Technology: Raising Families in a Tech-Savvy World (2018)

•        SC Bar Employment Law Essentials CLE, Litigating Employment Law Claims, Speaker (2014–2019)

•        SC Bar Webcast Wednesday, Speaker, A Pragmatic Approach to Federal Practice (10/4/2017)

•        2016 Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference Magistrate Judges meeting speaker, 2015 Federal Rule Changes

•        2016 Association of Corporate Counsel Annual Meeting panelist, Emerging Issues in Electronic Discovery (11/8/16)

•        South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association speaker: Ethics and Social Media (5/1/2016)

•        USC School of Law Tech Series speaker: Blurred Lines: Social Media and Ethics (9/2/2015)

•        USC School of Law Class Reunion, CLE speaker: Ethics and Social Media (10/17/14)

•        Guest Lecturer for various classes at USC School of Law, including Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr.’s Evidence class, Professor Eichhorn’s Advanced Civil Procedure class, Professor Leonardi’s Legal Writing and E-discovery classes, Professor Durant’s E-discovery class, Professor Virzi’s Legal Writing class, Judge Lockemy’s American Legal History, and USC Honors College pre-law courses

•        South Carolina Association for Justice CLE speaker: Social Security: A View from the Bench (8/5/21, 8/7/14), Employment Law (8/2/18, 7/28/17)

•        South Carolina Law Review E-discovery Symposium panelist: Ethical Challenges in E-Discovery: Passwords, Privilege, Profiles, & Beyond (3/1/13)

•        SC Bar Law School for Journalists speaker on Federal Courts (12/12/12)

•        National Advocacy Center Federal Guidelines Seminar speaker: Ethical Issues for CJA Panel Attorneys (9/24/12)

•        E-Discovery CLE panelist in Charlotte, NC, Where Reality Meets the Law (1/18/12)

•        South Carolina Legal Services CLE speaker in Myrtle Beach, SC, Federal Practice in South Carolina (11/09/11)

•        NC/SC Labor and Employment Law Conference panelist in Charleston, SC, Insight from the Federal Bench (10/22/11)

•        Recipient, Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Outstanding Alumna of the Year Inaugural Award, Inducted graduating students into the GSSM Alumni Association (5/28/11)

•        Girl Scouts Women of Distinction Dinner in Columbia, SC, Keynote Speaker (4/26/11)

•        South Carolina Law Review Symposium panelist in Columbia, SC, Judicial Ideology: Responses to How Judges Think by Richard Posner (10/22/10)

Personal

•        Naturalized American Citizen

•        Conversant in Farsi (Persian) and Italian, some French

•        Married to employment attorney R. Hayne Hodges III

•        Cooking, reading, traveling, and sports

•        Heathwood Hall Episcopal School Lacrosse play-by-play announcer

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)