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Please use the links to the right to check out firm news and more information relating to these specific areas of law. Happy reading and please contact us if you have any questions that we can help answer.


KellyGram – Arts & Innovation District on the Move

 

 

The Mike Kelly Law Group has had an office in Myrtle Beach since we established the firm almost 20 years ago. Unfortunately, our business neighborhood had declined over the years, but we were always hopeful that it would come back to be better than ever. Thanks to the leadership of the City of Myrtle Beach, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, and our local businesses in the area, the Arts & Innovation District is now on fire!

Just three years ago the Grand Strand Brewing Company became an anchor business based across from the old Pavilion property and directly opposite our building on Broadway Street. Since then, new businesses have steadily opened in the area including a new bakery, Le Manna Bread, owned and operated by a Venezuelan family, HTC Aspire HUB, a Health Club, and a soon to be Wine Bar Tasting Room, along with the Dolly Llama Waffle Master ice cream and dessert shop. This is all within just one block from the Mike Kelly Law Group in Myrtle Beach. Further down Broadway other new businesses have popped up including a new restaurant out of the Charleston area, Swig & Swine. I have not tried it yet, but it is on my list for next week’s trip. In the future, preliminary plans have been drawn up for Coastal Carolina University and the City of Myrtle Beach to collaborate on building a Performing Arts Center as well as plans to reconfigure the streets in the new Arts & Innovation District. It will be much like Downtown Columbia with real city blocks, sidewalks, streetscaping, and other innovative and beautification projects.

To say we are excited at the Mike Kelly Law Group is an understatement!

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – March Madness Time

 

 

As many of you know South Carolina loves its football and particularly at the college level, but we also love our basketball too. The Clemson men are having a good season and will make the playoffs while the lady Gamecocks are acting like lady Gamecocks! They were undefeated in the regular season and play next week in the SEC Tournament. The Gamecock men, under Coach Lamont Paris, have defied expectations and quite simply have done a remarkable job. Coach Paris and his staff have pulled together people who have never played with each other before and created such a talented basketball team. Between the Gamecock men’s and women’s teams, I have been glued to the television many times throughout this season and I look forward to seeing how deep a run they make during March Madness. What would we do without our sports? Go Gamecocks!

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – Christy Leigh Salinari

 

 

Our law clerk Christy Leigh Salinari is from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. She is a distinguished alumna of Coastal Carolina University where she studied History and Political Science and was a member of the Dance Team. She is a soon to be graduate of the University of South Carolina, Joseph F. Rice School of Law. Her family and friends affectionately call her CL. She will be officially joining the Mike Kelly Law Group as an attorney based in Columbia once she passes the July 2024 Bar Exam.

Christy Leigh has clerked for us for almost two years now, both in our Myrtle Beach and Columbia offices. She has developed a passion for serving others in our key practice areas of personal injury, workers comp and disability. She has prepared herself to begin her career at MKLG by taking courses in civil litigation, trial advocacy, mediation, insurance, and workers compensation’, just to name a few.

When she is not working for us, going to school, doing homework, or studying, she enjoys traveling abroad, riding her bike with her golden retriever named Rainy, and spending time sailing with her dad in her hometown of Murrells Inlet.

We are extremely excited about Christy Leigh’s future career with the Mike Kelly Law Group and her contributions to our firm and its client base.

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – African American History Month

 

 

When I think of African American leaders who have benefited this State and Nation in an unparalleled way, my mind goes to the ministry. First and foremost, we think of the late and great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with his role in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Focusing on other African American ministers within the Protestant Episcopal denomination of my birth, our current presiding Bishop is Michael Curry, who made international news when he gave the homily at the most recent Royal wedding. The first African American ordained minister in the United States was Absalom Jones from Philadelphia, and then the first African American priest in South Carolina was Reverend Thaddeus Saltus, who was an assistant priest at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Charleston and ordained to the priesthood in 1881.

In more recent times, I think of my friend and pastor, Reverend Dr. Charles Jackson of Brookland Baptist Church, and Pastor Senator Darrell Jackson of the dynamic Bible Way Church of Atlas Road in East Columbia. There are also numerous other clergymen in our midst including Bishop David Tompkins of Living Word of Deliverance Temple Worship Center, the Reverend Blakely Scott of First Nazareth Baptist Church, the late Reverend Roscoe Wilson, Sr. (grandfather of Gamecock All-American and NBA star A’Ja Wison) who pastored Saint John Baptist Church for 50 years. We also want to highlight our own Workers’ Compensation Paralegal, Kimberly Cropper’s uncle, Pastor Dr. Kelvin Felder of River of Life in Winnsboro and of New Covenant Assembly in Rock Hill. These pastors form the bedrock of faith in our South Carolina communities.

There are leaders and then there are our leaders, and the African American clergy are our true leaders!

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – Super Bowl LVIII

 

 

Super Bowl LVIII was the most watched live TV program ever in the history of television! There were Chiefs fans and 49ers fans (I gave the 49ers my primary allegiance only because they have a bunch of outstanding Gamecocks on the team including one of the best, Deebo Samuel), but I am the first to acknowledge that the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are pretty hard to beat! I did not attend a Super Bowl party, although I certainly have in the past, but I marvel on social media at how hyped-up people get about the Super Bowl and its halftime entertainment. I am by no means an entertainer and yield to my oldest son Patrick who is the performer in the family, but I thought the halftime show was great and the game itself was fantastic. The fact that the Super Bowl was watched around the globe including Australia, the far East, Europe, and other countries is a testimony to the National Football League’s success and all its incredible marketing efforts.

I look forward to enjoying more Super Bowls in my lifetime.

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – Columbia Drivers Running Red Lights

 

 

I know I am a voice in the wilderness, but it is still mindboggling to me the number of drivers in the City of Columbia that run red lights almost constantly. Take any red light, especially on Huger, Gervais and Assembly Streets and people come flying through them like they are still green! In the last seven days, I have witnessed several almost fatal collisions of people blowing through red lights to save a few seconds. Those few seconds could cost someone their lives and I urge the City of Columbia Police Department and City leaders to address this issue. It is a public safety issue and could cause serious fatalities. I hope that people will soon learn that saving a small amount of time is not worth the potentially catastrophic loss of injuring others or yourself. I would like to encourage the readers of this KellyGram to always be cautious and vigilant when driving. Even if you find yourself approaching a traffic light and the light is solid green, be aware and look both ways to make sure the intersection is safe to cross. Here, at the Mike Kelly Law Group we want to encourage and facilitate safer habits to help people avoid accidents.

Please slow down and observe traffic signals of all types. That is my diatribe!

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – Janet E. Rhodes

 

 

This months’ KellyGram salutes our employment and labor lawyer Janet Rhodes. I sought to bring her on with Mike Kelly Law Group for several years before I finally convinced her to come on board. Janet just marked her two-year anniversary with us, and I continue to be amazed at her skills, not only as an attorney, but as a singer, athlete, and community leader. She currently serves on the board of Trustus Theatre which is an organization near and dear to my heart because of my son Patrick who was basically raised there under the watchful eyes of founders Kay and Jim Thigpen. To say it takes a village to raise a child is a true statement.

Although Janet’s community activities remain, she still has the skills from her earlier days when she was a star athlete in high school and college playing volleyball, softball, and javelin. She has also been singing since elementary school and was a member of the professional choir the Sandlapper Singers in Columbia.

Janet graduated from Wofford College where she was quite active in different organizations and events and then graduated from the Charleston School of Law. We are quite blessed to have Janet as a part of our family and legal team.

If you as a small business or an employee in need a legal consult in employment and labor law do not hesitate to contact Janet here at the Mike Kelly Law Group.

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – Mental Transformation

 

 

As I have said before, sometimes the KellyGram topics come to me in dreams, and they are always subjects I feel strongly about.

Today I want to speak on the subject of mental transformation. I borrowed this idea from a devotional I read daily from the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States publications called Forward Day by Day. Being a third-generation Episcopalian, I try to read this along with other devotional, inspirational passages every day and this past Tuesdays was written by Beth-Sarah Wright. I have never met her, but she is an Atlanta based author and speaker who is married to the bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, Robert C. Wright, and a parent to five children. She inspired me in her devotional about the doctrine of mental transformation. It is not a religious doctrine, but instead something we should all strive for. When she started in her career, she feared she was not a good writer, not a good speaker and in effect she became crippled by her own limitations. She would say to herself, “why would anyone want to hear what I have to say?” Over time, through prayer and discernment she proceeded to write seven books, do countless speaking engagements, and has had a richly filled, joyful life. She called it her own mental transformation!

I pray that all the readers can take heed on some challenges in their life and receive the power of a mental transformation.

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – Reflections on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

As a young teenager, I can still remember watching on Mom and Dad’s black and white tv the, “I Have a Dream Speech.” Having always been a political junkie, I still remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. crusading for racial equality and economic justice. Back in the day I enjoyed reading Letters from an American, a newsletter written by Professor Heather Cox Richardson from the University of Maine. On the night of April 3, 1968, which was the night before Dr. King was assassinated, I read excerpts from the speech he gave at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in Memphis to lead protests for sanitation workers who were woefully underpaid and subject to dangerous conditions. A few quotes from the speech are as follows:

“If God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.”

“I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter…because I’ve been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

Strangely, some of the things he said that night in his speech leave me to believe that somehow, he knew that his days were numbered. Even though his life was cut short, he has made a lasting impact on me, my fellow Americans, and the world! What a magnificent American he was!

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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KellyGram – Mother Nature

 

 

That sure was some powerful Mother Nature this past Tuesday that resulted in destruction throughout South Carolina but fortunately no deaths! The damage was especially bad in the beautiful little town of Bamberg, South Carolina and there was isolated tornadoes and damage along the coast. I had a telephone social security hearing and a zoom call both of which I could do while working from my home, so I stayed in my pajamas all day and rode the storm out. In the midst of all the noise, the wind, and the rain, a self-inflicted funny occurrence happened at my expense!

The security system in my home started beeping due to a tornado warning. It got to be quite irritating, so I went to the alarm panel and made a decision to push a button that had a + sign and unfortunately, I did not know that was a panic button!

All hell broke loose in the house! It sounded like there was a Columbia firetruck in my kitchen with all kinds of horns blowing and buzzers sounding. Literally the house was shaking. We finally got it turned off but by that point the police had been called. True to form, one of Columbia’s finest showed up at my home within five minutes. I went to the front door and was smiling, and the officer said, “Let me guess, tornado warning!” and I said’ “Yes, I hit the panic button, and I am so sorry you had to come out!” Being polite, he said, “Don’t worry Mr. Kelly it was my fourth tornado watch call in the last ten minutes.” With all that said, let us all be thankful that there were no deaths in our state from this weather and let us all find the joy when there is darkness.

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!

Have a great weekend!

 

Mike Kelly

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