Event Information

Constance A. Anastopoulo is  Professor of Law at Charleston School of Law and a Visiting Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law teaching Insurance Law and Professional Responsibility. Her research lies in the areas of Torts and Insurance Law, particularly Bad Faith Litigation. She a former litigator at Poulin Willey Anastopoulo Law Firm, LLC, where she handled insurance litigation and served as Director of the Appellate Practice Division for the law firm, including appearing before the S.C. Court of Appeals, the S.C. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit.  She was lead counsel on the seminal case, Gaskins v. Southern Farm Bureau, chosen one of the most important decisions in South Carolina at the time. Anastopoulo also served as Plaintiffs' Class Counsel for the Class Action lawsuit, In Re: Oxycontin. In 2009, she authored the nationally recognized Amicus Curie Brief on behalf of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina in, Segars-Andrews v. Judicial Merit Selection Commission, et al. 

Constance A. Anastopoulo received her B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and graduated in an accelerated three-year program and her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was the Director of the Women's Prison Project. After law school, she received a prestigious grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to continue her work with incarcerated women.

Anastopoulo's publications have appeared in the Ohio State Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal, the Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy, the Indiana Law Review, the University of Memphis Law Review, and the Mitchell Hamline Law Review to name a few. Also, she is author of several chapters on South Carolina insurance law for the S.C. Bar Publications Division.  Additionally, Anastopoulo lectures on issues of insurance law and ethics for numerous CLE's annually and has presented to the S.C. Judiciary at the annual Judicial Conference on S.C. Insurance law.

In 2018, Anastopoulo was the first woman to run for Attorney General of South Carolina.
 

Jim Clement is a trial lawyer in Charleston, whose main practice areas include personal injury, business, condemnation and real estate litigation.  A proud graduate of Tulane University Law School, Jim honed his skills during a two-year clerkship with a federal district judge in New Orleans, where he gained invaluable insights into the judicial process. He has successfully tried cases to jury verdict and arbitration award, demonstrating his commitment to achieving favorable outcomes for his clients.
Before joining his current firm, Walker Gressette & Linton, Jim spent nearly five years at a defense firm in Charleston, where he represented a diverse array of clients in litigation, including product manufacturers, restaurant owners, real estate developers, insurance companies, and various licensed professionals. Early in his career, Jim handled real estate acquisitions and eminent domain matters for the Virginia Department of Transportation. With a background working for insurance companies and condemning authorities, Jim is uniquely positioned to advocate for individuals and entities who have been wronged by others or who are facing condemnation of property.
Outside of his legal practice, Jim resides with his wife and three daughters in the Old Village neighborhood of Mount Pleasant. When he can find the time, Jim enjoys surfing on Isle of Palms early in the morning and boating around the beautiful waters of the Lowcountry on the weekends.
 

Janice Holmes is a proud Clemson graduate (“Go Tigers!”) and a graduate of Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, Nebraska.She has been in practice for over 18 years and currently focuses her practice primarily on handling coverage matters, including advising clients coverage issues and representing insurers in connection with declaratory judgment actions and bad faith lawsuits.  Janice is an active participant in the SC Bar’s Publication Committee and is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the SC Lawyer magazine. 

Tom Gressette is an experienced litigator who has handled complex cases in federal and state courts around the country.  Originally from Florence, South Carolina, Tom attended Clemson University then the University of South Carolina School of Law where he was awarded the John Holland Memorial Scholarship.  Upon graduation Tom clerked for United States District Judge C. Weston Houck then spent two years as an assistant federal public defender before he transitioned into civil practice upon joining the former firm of Ness Motley Loadholt Richardson & Poole LLC in Charleston.  In the following years Tom was a member of Richardson Patrick Westbrook & Brickman, LLC where he represented plaintiffs in pharmaceutical and medical device cases around the country.  He was appointed to serve Special Counsel to the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey and he also litigated cases on behalf of the Territories of the United States Virgin Islands as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto.    

Tom is currently a member of Walker Gressette & Linton, LLC.  He represents parties in all types of litigation ranging from personal injury to insurance bad faith to contractual disputes, including any necessary appeals. Tom also handles several unique kinds of cases. For example, Tom represents entities regulated by the South Carolina Public Service Commission. These cases include water/sewer utility ratemaking cases and matters involving solar and renewable energy projects. In another niche area of practice, Tom routinely represents clients in cases under the jurisdiction of the South Carolina Administrative Law Court, including environmental permitting matters and other issues regulated by the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control (DHEC) and its Office of Coastal Resource Management (OCRM). These cases include litigation over beachfront jurisdictional lines (baseline and setback line) and critical area permitting.   

Tom has taught as an adjunct professor of law at the Charleston School of Law and he is the author of multiple law review articles and other publications.  He has also served as the President of the South Carolina Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and is currently President of the South Carolina Bar Foundation.   

Vernon Sumwalt works at The Sumwalt Group Workers’ Compensation and Trial Lawyers in Charlotte, North Carolina, in cases involving workplace and other injuries, occupational exposures, and wrongful deaths.  He is a Past President of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and a Fellow in the national College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers.  Mr. Sumwalt is a board-certified specialist in both appellate practice and workers’ compensation law by the North Carolina State Bar, where he chaired its Workers’ Compensation Specialization Committee for three more years after serving on the committee for four years, and where he has served on the Appellate Practice Specialization Committee since 2022. In 2011, the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization honored him with the James L. Cross Leadership Award.         

Mr. Sumwalt has presented at more than 150 national and State seminars, has tried more than 350 cases, and has handled 135 appeals to the appellate courts in North Carolina and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.  He has been on the Larson’s National Workers’ Compensation Advisory Board for LexisNexis® since 2007 and has written the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Practice Guide (LexisNexis® © 1st–5th eds. 2017-2021) and parts of The Law of Workers’ Compensation in South Carolina (S.C. Bar, 2nd ed. 1998, 3rd ed. 2003, and 4th ed. 2005, 5th ed. 2008, 6th ed. 2012, 7th ed. 2019), The Law of Automobile Insurance in South Carolina (S.C. Bar, 4th ed. 2000, 5th ed. 2002, 6th ed. 2009, 7th ed. 2015, 8th ed. 2024), The South Carolina Law of Damages (workers’ compensation chapter) (S.C. Bar, 1st ed. 2004, 2nd ed. 2009), The Complete Guide to Medicare Secondary Payor Compliance (Chapter 6.11, North Carolina) (Lexis-Nexis® 2011 and later editions), and North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law: A Practical Guide to Success at Every Stage of a Claim (Chapter 13, Credits Under the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act) (Lexis-Nexis® 1st ed. 2012, 2nd ed. 2014, 3rd ed. 2017, 4th ed. 2022).   

Mr. Sumwalt has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® since 2009, as a North Carolina Super Lawyer since 2010 as well as a “Rising Star” in 2009, and by Top Attorneys in North Carolina by Charlotte Magazine (2011-present).  In four different years (2013, 2016, 2018, and 2025) Mr. Sumwalt was the claimant’s workers’ compensation “Lawyer of the Year” for Charlotte by Best Lawyers, and he was a “Top 25” attorney in Charlotte (2015-2016) and a “Top 100” attorney in North Carolina by Super Lawyers over eight different years (2015-2017, 2019, 2021, 2023-2025).

Bill Hesse is an insurance defense attorney with Murphy & Grantland, P.A. in Columbia. His practice is focused primarily on automobile and trucking defense, as well as insurance coverage issues.

A Charleston native, Bill obtained his undergraduate degree from The Citadel and earned his juris doctor degree as a member of the founding class at the Charleston School of Law.