J. Kevin Holmes

Kevin Holmes has a sign hanging over his sink that reads, “I wasn’t born in the South but got here as quick as I could.” He moved to Columbia in 1975 right after he graduated from Rutgers University School of Law. When he passed the South Carolina bar exam, he took a job working with then Senator Isadore E. Lourie, the Speaker Pro Tem of the South Carolina Senate and champion of the rights of working men and women of our State. It was during his time with Senator Lourie that he won the landmark case of Marquard v. Columbia Pacific Mills which was the first time a cotton mill worker was awarded death benefits for the lung disease called byssinosis or brown lung. The case broke the stranglehold the political Medical Panel had on denying benefits to mill workers and made it easier for all workers to receive workers’ compensation benefits for occupational diseases.

Kevin moved to Charleston and joined the Steinberg Law Firm, in 1979 where he has practiced ever since. He became a partner in the firm in 1985. He says, “I choose to come work for the Steinberg Law Firm because its founder, Irving Steinberg, was also recognized as being a champion for the rights of working men and women. Irving Steinberg helped write South Carolina’s first workers’ compensation statute and get it passed into law by the Legislature in 1936.”

Kevin has 42 years’ experience trying civil and criminal cases in the State and Federal Courts of South Carolina. He is a member of the bar of the State of South Carolina, the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, the Fourth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. He has tried 38 homicide cases, including two death penalty murder cases. He has tried hundreds of civil trials in State and Federal court earning him a membership in the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates.

It isn’t enough to be a good trial lawyer. A good lawyer must also be prepared to fight their client’s case on appeal.

Since joining the Steinberg Law Firm he has won numerous important Supreme Court cases expanding and protecting the rights of injured persons. You can review a list of his cases on our firm web page.

Kevin currently serves on the Board of the Charleston County Bar Association and has served several terms on the Board of Governors of the South Carolina Association for Justice. He has been continuously recognized by the Million Dollar Advocates, Best Lawyers in America for both personal injury and workers’ compensation, and Super Lawyers. He is also been active in our community having served the boards of numerous charitable organizations. He is married to Mary Hiott Holmes and they have five children.

Recently, he was awarded the Injured Workers Advocates (IWA) Lifetime Achievement Award. The IWA is a South Carolina non-profit association of attorneys dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights of South Carolina workers injured by accidental injuries or occupational diseases.