Michal Kalwajtys

DIAL DIRECT NUMBERS

Phone:

803-343-3872

Fax:

803-779-3423

ADMISSIONS
  • South Carolina Bar, 2013
  • United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, 2014
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2015
EDUCATION
  • University of South Carolina School of Law, J.D., 2012
  • American Institute for Paralegal Studies, Paralegal Certificate, 2004
  • Nicolaus Copernicus University, Faculty of Law and Administration, Torun, Poland
    • Magister Prawa (Juris Doctor Equivalent), 2002
  • University of Cambridge, England, Board of Continuing Education, Diploma in an Introduction to English Law and the Law of the European Union, 2001
SUPPORT STAFF

Michal Kalwajtys joined Baker Ravenel & Bender following its merger with the firm of Dougall & Collins where he had practiced insurance defense for seven years.

Michal’s J.D. from the University Of South Carolina School Of Law is actually his second law degree. In 2002, he earned a law degree at a university in his native Poland.

Michal first visited the United States in the summer of 1997; he worked as a camp counselor in Pennsylvania. Michal returned to the same camp during the next three summers, eventually meeting there a counselor from Florida, who would become his wife. He immigrated to the United States after they married and he finished law school in Poland. Following the birth of his son in Columbia in 2010, and having become US citizen in 2016, Michal is now firmly rooted in South Carolina and proud to call it home.

Michal spends most of his free time playing guitar and violin. Since his high school days, he has been a rock and metal guitarist. Over nearly three decades, Michal has performed several hundred shows in dozens of venues throughout South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and in and around his hometown of Torun, Poland. You can still see him perform from time to time with his heavy metal band “Bona Lisa.”

Susan Drake DuBose

DIAL DIRECT NUMBERS

Phone:

803-799-9091
803-343-3868

Fax:

803-779-3423

ADMISSIONS
  • South Carolina, 1996
  • U.S. District Court District of South Carolina, 1997
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit, 2000
EDUCATION
  • University of South Carolina School of Law, J.D. (Cum Laude), 1996
  • Carolina Legal Scholar
  • Order of the Coif
  • Order of the Wig and Robe
  • John Belton O’Neall Inn of Court
  • Student Works, Editor
  • South Carolina Law Review
  • University of Georgia, B.A. (Summa Cum Laude), English and Psychology, 1993
  • Phi Beta Kappa
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
  • Richland County Bar Association
  • South Carolina Bar Association
  • South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys Association
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
  • Chair, Children and Youth Committee at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (2009-2012)
  • Past Chair Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Vacation Bible School
HONORS AND AWARDS
  • 2016 Legal Elite of the Midlands – insurance law
SUPPORT STAFF
Susan joined the firm in 1996 and left in 2002 to focus on her family. Susan and her husband, Jones, have three children.  Susan returned to the firm in 2010 after her youngest child started school.  She is so thankful that the firm welcomed her back and has enjoyed returning to the practice of law.  Much of her free time is spent watching her children play soccer, baseball, and basketball. When not attending athletic events, her family enjoys spending time on the May River in Bluffton.  Susan is also an active member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Jay Bender

DIAL DIRECT NUMBERS

Phone:

803-799-9091

Fax:

803-779-3423

ADMISSIONS
  • South Carolina, 1975
  • U.S. District Court District of South Carolina, 1975
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Federal Claims
  • U.S. Supreme Court
EDUCATION
  • University of South Carolina School of Law, Columbia, South Carolina J.D, 1975
  • University of South Carolina
  • B.A in Journalism, 1970
CERTIFICATION/SPECIALTIES
    • Certified Civil Mediator, State and Federal Courts
    • Certified Arbitrator
PEER RATING

Martindale Hubbell rated AV 5.0/5.0

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
    • Permanent member, Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference
    • Richland County Bar Association
    • South Carolina Bar
    • Richland County Planning Commission, Member, 1979-83; Chairman, 1981
    • South Carolina Occupational Health and Safety Review Board, Chairman, 1983 -1990
PUBLISHED WORKS
  • “Law Affecting South Carolina Newspapers”, SCPA Foundation, 1995
  • Legal Guide, S.C. Broadcasters, 1998
  • “Closed Doors and Closed Drawers: Public Access to Courtrooms and Court Records”, S.C. Lawyer,   Nov./Dec., 1994
  • “The Constitution and the Challenge to the Culture of Confidentiality”, S.C. Lawyer, May/June, 1995
  • “Restraints on Extrajudicial Comment: Who Can Say What, When and Where?”  S.C. Lawyer, May/June,   1999
  • “One Week That Changed the State”, S.C. Lawyer, Nov./Dec., 1999
  • “An Outbreak of Prior Restraint in the Palmetto State”, S.C. Lawyer, March 2012
HONORS AND AWARDS
  • Best Lawyers in America
  • Super Lawyer
SUPPORT STAFF

Jay Bender has built a national reputation as a lawyer for newspapers and broadcasters, and is regarded as South Carolina’s foremost authority on the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.  Bender represents the South Carolina Press Association, the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, and many of the members of those associations.  Since beginning his media law practice in 1975 Bender has appeared in a multitude of trial and appellate courts, both federal and state, to advocate press-related cases.  As a lobbyist for the South Carolina Press Association, Bender was instrumental in the adoption of amendments to strengthen the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and the adoption of a reporter’s shield law.  Bender has also published two books on South Carolina media law.

Bender holds the Reid H. Montgomery Freedom of Information Chair at the University of South Carolina where he is a visiting professor in the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies and a lecturer in the School of Law.  Bender teaches courses in the law and ethics of mass communication in both schools and a course on constitutional limitations on commercial speech regulation in the law school.  Bender’s students include undergraduates, law students and doctoral candidates.

In addition to his media law practice and his teaching Bender is a frequent speaker to press groups, lawyer organizations, judges and academic assemblies on access to courts, public records and meetings, and free speech issues.  Bender is quoted regularly by reporters commenting on free speech and access controversies ranging from a police department’s refusal to provide a crime report to the arrest of protesters on the state capitol grounds.

Bender has prepared summaries of South Carolina media-related law for the Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press and the Libel Defense Resource Center. He has also written on media law issues for the South Carolina Bar magazine, his most recent publication being “An Outbreak of Prior Restraint in the Palmetto State” in the March 2012 issue of South Carolina Lawyer.  Bender’s provocative speech on free speech at the inaugural  Columbia TEDx talks received a standing ovation.

Between 1975 and 2006 Bender was an attorney for the Catawba Indian Nation and participated in litigation and negotiations leading to the settlement of a land claim that arose in 1840.

Away from his professional career Bender has been active in community service having been a “radio reader” on the South Carolina Radio Network for the Blind for 30 years and a frequent platelet donor for the Red Cross.  In 2010 Bender received an award for service to journalism and the community from the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and previously was honored as an outstanding alumnus of that school.

Bender has been a vintage motorcycle racer (a reference to both the rider and his mount), a whitewater kayaker, marathoner and mountain climber.  Bender has ridden a motorcycle from Key West, Florida to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and later to the “Four Corners” of the United States:  Key West, Florida, San Ysidro, California, Blaine, Washington, and Madawaska, Maine.  Bender’s more sedate hobby is collecting pueblo and Catawba pottery.

Catharine Garbee Griffin

DIAL DIRECT NUMBERS

Phone:

803-799-9091
803-343-3863

Fax:

803-779-3423

ADMISSIONS
  • South Carolina Bar, 1987
  • United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, 1987
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1987
EDUCATION
  • University of South Carolina School of Law
  • J.D., 1987
  • Order of Wig and Robe
  • Dean’s List
  • University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee
  • B.A. English, 1984
JUDICIAL CLERKSHIPS
  • Law Clerk 1988-1989, The Honorable Jean Hoefer Toal
PEER RATING
  • Martindale Hubbell rated AV 5.0/5.0
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
  • Richland County Bar Association
  • John Belton O’Neal Inn of Court (Past President)
  • South Carolina Defense Trial Attorney’s Association
  • Defense Research Institute
  • Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the American College of Trial Attorneys.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
  • Volunteer, WA Perry After School Program
  • Liturgy Prep teacher, Trinity Episcopal Church
HONORS AND AWARDS
  • 2017 Bar Register Preeminent Attorney – Listed Lawyer
  • 2017 Top Attorneys in the Midlands
  • 2017 AV Preeminent Attorney
SUPPORT STAFF
“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare”

Juma/Kangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon Winner

Running and practicing law have a lot in common. After running a marathon a year for more than a decade – including seven Boston Marathons – Catharine has learned that running up hills allows you to relax on the other side; that running the tangents saves steps; that flat terrain can be boring; that various weather conditions — rain, cold, heat — offer some advantage; and that preparation is the key to finishing a race. All of these principles, absorbed during the miles spent on the road running to prepare for a marathon, equally apply to her daily practice as a litigator.

When not running or practicing law, Catharine enjoys the company of her three beautiful daughters, and she hopes to run a marathon with one of them before she is too old.