Columbia attorney William Witherspoon to lead SC Bar
May 16, 2016
COLUMBIA, SC – Columbia attorney William K. Witherspoon will be installed as the 2016-17 president of the South Carolina Bar on Thursday, May 19, during the Bar’s House of Delegates meeting at the Bar Conference Center in Columbia. S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Costa Pleicones will administer the oath of office, and Witherspoon will address the House on initiatives for the coming year.
Witherspoon is Senior Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he has been employed for 16 years. Prior to this role, he worked in the Office of General Counsel for the S.C. Budget and Control Board; with the firm of Berry, Adams, Quackenbush & Stuart in Columbia; and in the offices of the late Randall T. Bell, judge of the S.C. Court of Appeals, and the late Matthew J. Perry, judge of the U.S. District Court.
Witherspoon entered the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1988 following a career as a chemist with Celion Carbon Fibers, a division of BASF, in Rock Hill, and as a Lancaster County Sheriff’s Deputy. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of South Carolina in 1981.
Witherspoon has been very active in Bar activities, serving as member of the House of Delegates since 1998 (chair from 2012 to 2014) and on the Continuing Legal Education, Publications, Judicial Qualifications, Professional Responsibility, and Diversity and Inclusiveness committees. He has also served on the S.C. Supreme Court Board of Grievances and Discipline and the Palmetto Legal Aid Board of Directors. He is a past president of the Richland County Bar Association and Columbia Lawyers’ Association and a graduate of the 1997-98 class of Leadership Columbia. He served two years as a Municipal Court Judge for the City of Columbia.
Community service has also been a priority for Witherspoon, having served on the board of directors for the Salvation Army, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Richland County Board of First Steps and the African-American Partnership Board at the University of South Carolina. He has mentored young men labeled “disadvantaged” for the Richland School District One mentor program and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
In 1999, William was awarded the USC School of Law’s Compleat Lawyer Silver Medallion Award for his service to the legal profession and the community at large, and in 2014 he received the Leadership in Law Award from SC Lawyers Weekly.
Other officers to be sworn in during the House of Delegates meeting are as follows. For additional information about the House of Delegates business meeting and its agenda, please click here.
President-Elect: Elizabeth Warner, Moncks Corner
Treasurer: Dawes Cooke, Charleston
Secretary: Beverly Carroll, Rock Hill
Chair, House of Delegates: Hagood Tighe, Columbia
Board Members: Stephen Cox, Rock Hill; Cathy Kennedy, Columbia; Elise Crosby, Georgetown; and Ivory Narcisse, Columbia
Young Lawyer Representatives: Patrick Wooten, Charleston; Lindsay Joyner, Columbia
ABA State Bar Delegate: Alice Paylor, Charleston; Jay Elliott, Columbia
The South Carolina Bar, which has a membership of more than 15,000 lawyers, is dedicated to advancing justice, professionalism and understanding of the law.
