K&L Gates has named Trey Howell and Mark Sharpe of the Charleston office as partners in the firm’s real estate investment, development, and finance practice. Howell advises mortgage portfolio servicers, borrowers, commercial and residential developers, landlords and tenants on a variety of servicing issues, financial transactions and real estate projects. Sharpe focuses his practice on commercial real estate, banking and commercial transactions, creditor rights and related litigation.
The Columbia office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart announced that Ted Speth and Kathy Dudley Helms have been elevated to executive positions within the firm. Speth, former managing shareholder of the firm’s Columbia office, has been elected to the firm’s Board of Directors. Helms has been named the new managing shareholder of the Columbia office. Speth has more than 30 years of experience with employment-related litigation in state and federal courts throughout the United States. He devotes a significant amount of time to the representation of clients in class action litigation and also provides training and preventive advice to employers in an effort to resolve potential employment-related legal matters before the matters escalate into legal actions. Speth has also been named as a 2014 Client Service All-Star by the BTI Consulting Group. Helms focuses her nearly 30-year practice on representing employers in the full range of employment-related matters, with a particular emphasis on the health care industry. She has represented private and public sector employers in federal and state courts.
Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter of Bland Richter in Columbia are now Board Certified as Legal Malpractice Specialists with the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys. The organization was founded in 1972 and has certifications in legal specialties in legal malpractice and medical malpractice.
