For 21 years, Chambers & Partners has published the world’s top guides to the legal profession. Each year a team of 100 full-time researchers conducts thousands of interviews with lawyers and their clients to identify and rank the world’s best lawyers and firms. Due to the high level of “in-depth, objective research” and the oft-repeated fact that “no one can buy their way in,” Chambers directories are considered some of the most reputable in the business. Firms and individual lawyers are ranked in bands from one to six, with one being the highest award. Congratulations to the many Columbia attorneys who made the Chambers list (available at
www.chambersandpartners.com/USA). Two Columbia attorneys, profiled below, received double Band 1 rankings this year – George S. “Chip” King, Jr., of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A.; and Edward G. Menzie of Nexsen Pruet, LLC.
CHIP KING is a fourth generation lawyer, but perhaps only because chemistry lab was less exciting than he had anticipated.
“My father, grandfather, great grandfather and two uncles were lawyers,” says King. “In high school, I fell in love with chemistry and went to college to become a chemist. By my third semester I discovered that chemistry lab was not only no fun for me, it was downright tedious. I shifted my focus to the humanities as preparation for law school.”
After almost five years as a navigator and captain in the Air Force, King earned his J.D. with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972 and returned to Columbia to practice with Boyd, Knowlton, Tate & Finlay (eventually Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd).
“It was truly the opportunity of a lifetime,” says King. “The other lawyers in that firm were extraordinarily bright, skillful, highly respected attorneys. Along with the other more senior members of the SC Bar, they were my mentors and my professional inspiration. I have always been privileged to practice with a group of outstanding attorneys. I cannot recall ever dreading going to the office.”
King is the senior member of the firm’s corporate securities and financial institution regulatory practices, has served as lead attorney on more than 40 mergers and acquisitions, is an associate member of the SC Bankers Association and past chair of the Corporate, Banking and Securities Section of the SC Bar.
“I assist clients with creating business entities, funding those entities, complying with different types of government regulations, growing those entities and, in some cases, terminating those entities,” says King. “My efforts complement those of entrepreneurs and established businesses, resulting in jobs and economic activity that sustain our local economy and provide revenue to operate Columbia’s and South Carolina’s substantial government sector.”
“What I enjoy most is helping clients find an efficient, legal way to accomplish their goals. Because of the multitude of laws and regulations that apply to businesses, this can be like finding your way through a complex maze with moving barriers. Finding the best solution requires experience, research and the substantial benefits of conferring with colleagues. When you find it, there’s a great feeling of accomplishment.”
King lists two activities among his proudest professional accomplishments: helping a bank avoid closure and takeover by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and assisting the organizers of new banks and savings associations.
“The bank went from prospering to failing as a consequence of the misconduct of a senior officer. Its regulators [warned] that the bank would be closed if the resulting liquidity crisis were not resolved immediately. I helped find another bank to acquire its assets and liabilities in an extremely short period of time,” says King. “Working closely with the other bank’s lawyer, we were able to negotiate a transaction and obtain financing to forestall the closure. Doing so resulted in my client’s shareholders receiving stock of the acquiring company worth about $5 per share. Had the bank closed, their stock would have probably been worthless.”
“New financial institutions not only provide good jobs for members of their communities but also provide services in a manner that is particularly sensitive to the needs and desires of their local customers. In some cases, I have helped these clients grow to acquire other banks and merge with larger institutions that provide customers with more services.”
When asked who motivates and inspires him, King credits his wife, two children and colleagues for pushing him to excel.
“My wife is a retired high school math teacher – I would be happy to be only half as skillful and organized as she is. I’m also very proud of our children, who have both demonstrated the value of tenacity in pursuing their chosen careers. As for my colleagues, if we were in the same class in school, I would be worried about being last in the class. We have the kind of relationships that allow us to work closely together for the common goal of serving our clients, with very little friction and a lot of positive synergy. Being able to practice with them adds immensely to the enjoyment of practicing law. I can’t imagine practicing without them.”
ED MENZIE started out as a pre-med student at the University of South Carolina but disliked all of the memorization involved. An eager friend in law school made him consider switching careers.
“I really liked the chemistry courses, organic chemistry in particular. I considered entering the chemical industry after undergraduate school but had a very close friend in law school who really liked it. As a result, I decided to look further into a legal career. I soon discovered that the study of law was a lot like organic chemistry: there were a lot of rules, and you had to figure out how they applied to determine the right result. So I enrolled in law school and never looked back.”
“I was very fortunate to obtain a clerkship with a Los Angeles firm after my second year in law school,” says Menzie, who earned his J.D., magna cum laude, in 1971. “I worked with lawyers from the finest law schools in the country and found that the training I received at the University of South Carolina School of Law was every bit as good. Once I realized that, I was never scared about making decisions in complicated legal transactions. I believe the fact that I knew I received excellent training in law school is the thing that has stayed with me all these years and has permitted me to continue to do the best job I possibly can for my clients.”
Menzie was married (to “a lovely Columbia girl”) with two children and chose to stay in Columbia over a big city practice on the West Coast. It’s a decision he doesn’t regret.
“Over the year as the banks and the Carolinas grew, my work became more and more sophisticated. After all these years, I have the best of all worlds – a somewhat ‘big city’ practice with all the Southern charm and advantages of living in Columbia. I still often work 16 hours a day, but I have a smile on my face when I go home and look forward to going back to work every morning. A large part of that is because the lawyers in our firm treat each other like family. That makes life a lot easier, especially since I spend more time with them than anyone else. Nexsen Pruet has always been the perfect fit for me. The other attorneys working for my clients treat them just like I try to, which is comforting. Client service is my number one priority.”
With a practice focused on corporate real estate, Menzie has been involved in numerous private and public development projects, including USC’s Research Campus (Innovista) and the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. He is also a former board of directors member for two of the state’s largest real estate development corporations.
“I have been fortunate to work on a number of high profile projects in the Midlands, including the Palmetto Center and the South Carolina State Museum,” says Menzie. “I have worked on hundreds of thousands of square feet of major office buildings in Columbia and beyond, all of which have brought life to the downtown areas. With the Convention Center, I worked with three different government bodies. While they had different feelings for each other, they all treated me with great respect and cooperation. All of these projects have turned out well for all parties involved, which is very satisfying.” Menzie says helping clients achieve their goals is the motivating force behind his work.
“Every time I have a happy client and a successful transaction, that becomes my proudest accomplishment. I have been successful with many large, complicated projects and have found that there is no substitute for really living with the entire project, visualizing how everything should work and what can go wrong. Life is difficult enough for clients with all the current financial pressures. I just want to do quality work that makes life easier for the person who pays me by the hour. The practice of law is a service business, and you have to enjoy providing service to your clients in order to do a good job.”