Russell T. Burke

Russell graduated with high distinction from the University of Virginia as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. He double majored in Economics and Religious Studies. Russell then went on to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1985. During law school he clerked for a local law firm in Charlottesville, concentrating on products liability litigation.

Russell then moved with his growing family to Columbia, where he joined Nexsen Pruet, one of South Carolina’s largest law firms. His mentor was Harold Jacobs, a local legend in the Bar. Russell became an equity partner in 1991, working on a wide variety of complex cases. He has handled many kinds of cases, ranging from antitrust (price fixing, monopolization, and monopoly leveraging), breach of contract, conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty, business valuation, unfair trade practices, trade secrets, defamation, hospital physician credentialing, personal injury, and products liability. Some of his cases spanned several years and involved millions of pages of electronic discovery. Russell has conducted hundreds of depositions, taken on scores of expert witnesses, supervised various document review teams to find the most important emails and documents, and tried over thirty cases in state and federal courts all over South Carolina.

In 2018, Russell joined McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips in Columbia, where he continued working on business litigation cases. He also handled a multi-year Section 1983 case, prevailing on appeal on the issue of qualified immunity claimed by EMTs and law enforcement.

Russell has worked on cases all over South Carolina and in multiple other jurisdictions. In many of these cases, Russell was up against the largest law firms in the country. He has also argued several cases before the South Carolina appellate courts and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

Russell is licensed to practice in South Carolina state court, the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, and the United States Courts of Appeal for the Fourth and Ninth Circuits. Russell has also been admitted Pro Hac Vice in Federal District Courts of California, Delaware, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia.

He is also a member of the South Carolina Bar Association, the Richland County Bar Association, and a past member of the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys Association, the Defense Research Institute, and the American Health Lawyers Association.

Russell and his wife have lived in Columbia for forty years, where they raised their seven children. They remain active in church and civic affairs.