Event Information

Barbara Seymour represents lawyers, law firms, judges, and law students in matters related to ethics, professional discipline, and Bar admissions at Clawson & Staubes, LLC. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Management and Marketing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1990 and her Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia in 1993. Barbara worked as a trial lawyer until 2000 when she joined the staff of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. She served as the Deputy Disciplinary Counsel from 2007 until 2017. Barbara is a member of the South Carolina Bar, the State Bar of Georgia, the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, and the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association. She currently serves on the Law Related Education, Professional Responsibility, Unauthorized Practice of Law, and Diversity Committees at the South Carolina Bar. She was a 2006 and 2011 Fellow of the National Institute for the Teaching of Ethics and Professionalism. She is the author of Trust Accounting for South Carolina Lawyers: An Annotated Practice Manual, published by the SC Bar. She has also taught a variety of Paralegal Studies courses for the past twenty-five years.

 Daniel R. Goldberg

 Deputy Solicitor 

Fifth Circuit Solicitor's Office

Mr. Goldberg is the Deputy Solicitor and Violent Crimes Team Leader for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which covers Richland and Kershaw Counties. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2000. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School Of Law in 2004. Since joining the Fifth Circuit in 2003, he has served as a Law Clerk, Assistant Solicitor and Team Leader tasked with prosecuting a variety of Violent Crimes to include Murder, Armed Robbery, Sexual Assault, and Burglary.

Mr. Goldberg has previously lectured at various law enforcement, educational and community outreach programs, as well as participated in numerous Bar activities.

Mr. Goldberg’s honors include Ernest F. Hollings Award for Excellence in State Prosecution for General Sessions Court (2021); Leadership Academy, Class IV, South Carolina Bar (2012 – 2013); Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award, University of South Carolina School of Law (April 2004).

Mr. Goldberg is a Member, Committee on Character and Fitness, South Carolina Supreme Court; Council Member, Criminal Law Section Council, South Carolina Bar; Member, John Belton O’Neall Inn of Court; Chairman, Board of Directors, Domestic Abuse Center; Member, Resolution of Fee Disputes Board, South Carolina Bar. 

Judge Daniel McLeod Coble was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina.  Judge Coble attended public schools in Columbia and graduated from Clemson University with a B.A. in Economics. He attended the University of South Carolina School of Law. 

Upon graduating law school, Judge Coble worked as an assistant solicitor for the Fifth Judicial Circuit where he also was the lead prosecutor for South Carolina's first homeless court.  He was appointed as a full-time magistrate judge for Richland County in 2017 and served as the associate chief from 2018-2021.  Judge Coble subsequently opened his own law practice, Coble Law Group, and focused on criminal and civil litigation. 

Judge Coble has written several legal books and articles and has been published by the South Carolina Bar, SC Lawyer, and several law reviews.  He served as the chair of the South Carolina Bar Publications Committee.  

He was elected in 2022 to fill the seat of the Honorable L. Casey Manning, resident judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, upon his retirement.

Deborah Barbier graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina School of Journalism in 1990. In 1994, she graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law. After law school, she served as a law clerk in state court to the Honorable Joseph A. Wilson, II, while he was the Chief Administrative Criminal Judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit. She then served as a federal judicial law clerk for the Honorable Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. in the United States District Court. Ms. Barbier worked for fifteen years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina. The first five years she was the lead attorney for the district's Affirmative Civil Enforcement division where she primarily prosecuted civil health care fraud, qui tams, drug diversion, and procurement fraud. Ms. Barbier worked in the criminal division of the US Attorney’s Office for 10 years, prosecuting defense contracting fraud, criminal health care fraud, securities fraud, mortgage fraud, white collar fraud, tax fraud, and public corruption. She served on numerous task forces designed to combat financial crimes, health care fraud, terrorism, and public corruption. She was the lead attorney for the Asset Forfeiture division for two and a half years. She was the Chief of the White Collar Division for more than five years. She is currently in private practice specializing in complex civil litigation and white collar criminal defense.

Barbier has been named in the Best Lawyers in America for the last ten years. She is a member of the John Belton O’Neall Inn of Court. She is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and serves on the State Committee. She is a Fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Litigation Counsel of America. She has been inducted into the American Law Institute. She has been consistently named to both Superlawyers and to America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators.

Derek is a former federal prosecutor and an experienced litigator who represents clients – both large and small – before numerous state and federal courts. A proven problem solver who focuses on complex criminal and civil issues, Derek personally handles each client’s case with deliberate intensity and attention to detail. Although he is based in the Midlands, Derek has handled cases throughout the country and across South Carolina, including Richland, Florence, and Kershaw Counties.

Derek most recently served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of South Carolina, where he ran one of the U.S. Attorney’s four offices in the state. He began by handling violent crime and narcotics cases, including cases involving drug gangs, firearms, bank robbery, and the most recent federal death penalty case in the United States. He ultimately became a white-collar prosecutor, where he handled complex criminal matters including wire fraud, healthcare fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, and public corruption. Derek’s successes include serving as lead counsel for the largest criminal tax operation in the history of South Carolina’s Pee Dee Region; serving as counsel in one of the largest healthcare fraud cases in the country; and serving as the state’s Coronavirus Fraud Coordinator where he was responsible for handling many of the first criminal cases in South Carolina involving pandemic-related fraud and where he oversaw cases related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), and other Coronavirus-related programs.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Derek worked at the largest law firm in South Carolina and was a partner at a small law firm in Columbia, South Carolina. In those capacities, he spent years representing corporate and individual clients before state and federal courts in all manner of civil and criminal proceedings. This experience included successfully representing clients in False Claims Act cases (also known as qui tam actions or whistleblower actions), serving as counsel on class action matters, handling appellate matters at the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, and serving as special counsel to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office to represent the interests of the State against entities committing civil wrongdoing.

Derek has authored several legal articles in various publications, taught numerous Continuing Legal Education Courses to lawyers across the state, and clerked for two federal judges in the District of South Carolina. Derek also taught Civil Litigation in the University of South Carolina’s paralegal certification program and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Carolina’s School of Law. He has taught Legal Writing and currently teaches Technology and Criminal Law.

In addition to his litigation experience, Derek was recently elected to Kershaw County Council and serves on the Council’s Finance Committee. Before becoming a lawyer, Derek worked as an editor for The Item, a newspaper in Sumter, South Carolina, worked as a defense contractor for the General Dynamics Corporation, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps until his honorable discharge as a Sergeant. When not at work or teaching, Derek enjoys spending time with his wife – who teaches elementary school – and their two children.

Admissions

• South Carolina
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• United States District Court, South Carolina

Education

• University of South Carolina School of Law, Magna Cum Laude
• Old Dominion University, Cum Laude

Clerkships

• The Honorable R. Bryan Harwell, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court
• The Honorable G. Ross Anderson, Jr., U.S. District Court 

Jessica O’Neill Gooding grew up in Conway, South Carolina, a small town where high school football games were important community events and people could be counted on to help their neighbors. After high school, Jess attended University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. Jess graduated in 2010 with highest honors as a summa cum laude graduate and with an honors degree from the South Carolina honors college. 

Jess then attended University of South Carolina School of Law and earned her Juris Doctorate with high honors, magna cum laude, in 2013. While in law school, Jess served as a Peer Mentor, a Law School Ambassador, and the Symposium Editor for the South Carolina Law Review. Jess was inducted into both of the School of Law’s prestigious honor societies, the Order of the Coif and the Order of the Wig and Robe. 

Immediately following graduation, Jess joined a Columbia firm and began practicing with the Employment and Personal Injury Litigation teams. Jess had the opportunity to represent clients in state and federal courts, as well as before administrative agencies at the state and federal level. She served as a first chair trial attorney in personal injury cases even in those early years of practice. In 2016, Jess joined Goings Law Firm, where she has continued to build on her courtroom and trial experience, both through formal training and by representing clients in various types of trials. She has been recognized as an up-and-coming trial attorney by Columbia Business Monthly and Super Lawyers Magazines, among other accolades. 

Jess is active in the community and the profession, and she has served on several committees in South Carolina Bar’s Young Lawyer Division. She stays connected to the law school by working closely with student organizations and serving as an attorney mentor to first year law students each year. Jess is also the Chair of the Membership Committee for the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association and has served on the Editorial Board for the Richland County Bar Newsletter. 

Jess’s husband, Ben, is also an attorney. They have two children and two Labrador Retrievers, who keep them busy! When away from the office, Jess and Ben enjoy attending college football games, cooking, and entertaining friends. Whenever they can, the Goodings enjoy traveling to a family farm in Georgia — who doesn’t love a good tractor ride, after all? 

At the conclusion of her clerkship, Ms. Walker accepted a job with the South Carolina Attorney General's office where she has previously worked as a law clerk. During her tenure at the Attorney General's Office, as both a prosecutor and law clerk, Ms. Walker worked on cases involving corrupt law enforcement officers, multi-county drug rings, and criminal street gangs. While prosecuting gang cases in Richland County, Meghan accepted a position as an Assistant Solicitor with the Fifth Judicial Circuit (Richland and Kershaw Counties). As an Assistant Solicitor, Meghan worked primarily in the Columbia, SC office. In her six years with the office, Ms. Walker tried twenty-five cases to jury verdict with her primary focus being on violent crime. 

In February of 2018, Ms. Walker was named Executive Director of the South Carolina State Ethics Commission. As Executive Director, Ms. Walker hopes to aid all South Carolinians in understanding the Ethics Act while fairly enforcing the Act.

Ms. Walker is a member of the South Carolina Bar and the Columbia Chapter of The Links, Inc.