A Rich Legacy

Wyche traces its history to 1921 and the formation of Dean, Cothran & Wyche. The firm was renamed Wyche, Burgess, Freeman & Parham in 1964. The visionary leadership of Tommy Wyche, enhanced and supported by others, including Al Burgess, David Freeman, Jim Parham, Bill Kehl, and Jim Shoemaker, inspired the growth of a world-class law firm in South Carolina. In building Wyche, these senior leaders focused on attracting national-caliber talent from leading universities and high-performing professional backgrounds. The firm was built on a unique philosophy, which still drives its decisions: excellence over revenue maximization, community over narrow self-interest, and ingenuity over brute force. In 2011, the firm simplified its name to Wyche, P.A., but remained focused on its rich legacy in the realms of law, community, and environmental stewardship.

In 1958, Granville Wyche, Tommy Wyche’s father and firm founder, was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in North America. Since then, three other Wyche attorneys have been inducted: David Freeman in 1965, Wallace Lightsey in 2004, and Matthew Richardson in 2020. Founded in 1950, the College is composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Fellowship in the College is by invitation only.

Wyche has played a key role in the development and revitalization of downtown Greenville. In 1961, the firm relocated from 207 South Main Street in Greenville (the current location of Soby’s restaurant) to Wyche’s long-time headquarters at 44 East Camperdown Way. This was an early step in the long march toward reclaiming the Reedy River. Wyche was central to other key milestones in downtown Greenville, including the development of the Hyatt (recognized as the original catalyst for transforming the downtown area), the Peace Center, and RiverPlace. Notably, Wyche attorney spouses, Harriet Wyche and Polly Shoemaker, led efforts to develop what is now known as Falls Park, an internationally recognized Greenville landmark.

Fifteen years after Brown v. Board of Education, the Greenville County School District had yet to desegregate its public schools. The NAACP and others, frustrated with the lack of progress, filed suit against the District. Unsure of the best way to reach consensus and form a path forward, the District asked Tommy Wyche and Jim Parham to serve as special counsel to advise on desegregation. In that role, Wyche developed a plan that accelerated integration, despite significant political pressure to stall those efforts. The proposal was accepted by District Court Judge Robert Martin, and is regarded as the linchpin in finally successfully integrating Greenville County schools.

Wyche has participated in landmark litigation in all areas of the law. In the early 1970s, David Freeman and Alfred Burgess brought a case that resulted in one of the leading decisions in South Carolina on the duty of loyalty that employees owe their employers. In the case, Wyche obtained a favorable decision in the South Carolina Supreme Court against former employees who had lured away other employees and gone into competition with Lowndes, our client. This case is still important law in South Carolina.

Enjoyment of nature, and a commitment to protecting it, is in Wyche’s DNA. Many Wyche lawyers have done extraordinary work in the realm of conservation, which has become a pillar of the firm’s legacy. In 1973, Tommy Wyche founded Naturaland Trust, among the first and most successful conservation land trusts in the Southeast. Tommy conceived and executed a master plan for protection of 40,000 acres connecting the Poinsett and Table Rock watersheds. Thanks to his vision and the work and commitment of many Wyche lawyers and other leaders, land protected by the Trust includes Jones Gap State Park, Caesar’s Head State Park, and Raven Cliff Falls. Tommy also provided essential leadership in acquiring and protecting Jocassee Gorges Wilderness Area, covering 50,000 acres in North and South Carolina. Today, the firm continues to work closely with conservation organizations and community partners, assisting in protecting large tracts of ecologically sensitive land with conservation easement agreements and grants.

Wyche has won cases that other lawyers couldn’t. In the early 1980s the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice began major prosecution of paving companies in the southeast. Many companies and individuals pled guilty or were convicted. Charlie Wofford and Henry Parr defended two major South Carolina paving companies. They won the first acquittal of a paving company in that investigation in federal court in Richmond, Virginia. A year later, Wofford and Parr prevailed against the government again, successfully defending another major paving company in federal court in Greenville, SC.

In 1981, The American Lawyer, a national legal publication, named Wyche among the “13 Great Small Firms” in the country. In 1994, The American Lawyer published a follow-up to its “13 Great Small Firms” edition in which it highlighted Wyche among 9 firms that had survived since its original publication, and noted the firm’s pioneering approach to alternative billing long before other firms entertained arrangements that challenged the “billable hour” status quo.

Universally recognized as the anchor project for the transformation of downtown Greenville into the remarkable place we know today, the Hyatt was officially dedicated in January of 1982 after many years of the combined strategic leadership of Tommy Wyche, Buck Mickel, and Mayor Max Heller.

Wyche was one of the first South Carolina law firms to practice in the realm of securities law – long regarded as the exclusive province of New York firms. In 1982, Wyche helped Ryan’s Family Steak Houses, Inc. complete its initial public offering. Ryan’s subsequently expanded its group of restaurants to over 200 in the southern and mid-western United States and remained a public company client of Wyche until Ryan’s was sold in 2006.

In another significant securities law matter – which was also significant for Greenville – Wyche helped Multimedia, Inc. (a publicly-traded company and owner of several television stations, radio stations, cablevision systems, the Phil Donahue Show, and the Sally Jessy Raphael show) successfully fend off a hostile takeover and recapitalize itself, allowing its shareholders to receive a very significant payment for a portion of their stock ownership. Multimedia, Inc. remained a public company client of Wyche until Multimedia was sold to Gannett in 1995.

Wyche attorneys argued in the U. S. Supreme Court for the first time in Spencer v. SC Tax Commission. Henry Parr and Eric Amstutz brought this case on behalf of a client whom South Carolina taxed at a higher rate because he lived outside the state. Before the South Carolina Supreme Court, Wyche successfully challenged the constitutionality of the South Carolina tax statute that discriminated against out-of-state residents working in South Carolina, but the South Carolina court refused to grant their attorneys’ fees. The U.S. Supreme Court took the case regarding the attorneys’ fees issue but split 4 to 4.

In 1987, Wyche helped Delta Woodside Industries, Inc. (a textile and apparel company) complete its initial public offering. Over the ensuing two decades, Delta Woodside remained a client of Wyche. Delta Woodside was a major manufacturer of woven and knit fabrics, including fabric used in United States military apparel. For a time, Delta Woodside owned the Duck Head apparel brand.

In 1989, Bill Kehl and Henry Parr successfully represented St. Francis Hospital in its effort to obtain permission to build its Women’s Hospital (now St. Francis Eastside) in the Pelham Road area. As a result of St. Francis’ victory, the Greenville community’s options for obstetrics healthcare options were expanded.

In 1990, the Peace Center opened and became another key landmark in Greenville’s revitalization. Wyche attorneys played a key role in the vision and development of the Peace Center, from raising funds to donating legal assistance. At the forefront of the effort was Wyche attorney David Freeman, who was critical to the vision and funding of the project.

In the early 1990s the Antitrust Division of the U. S. Department of Justice investigated and successfully prosecuted a number of companies and individuals involved in the soft drink bottling business for price fixing. Henry Parr and Frank Holleman represented an individual whose company had pled guilty and obtained a not guilty verdict for him in August 1991.

Wyche has also obtained numerous important results in the area of First Amendment and media law. One such ruling is the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in Weston v. Carolina Research & Development Foundation, affirming a judgment obtained by Wyche for The Greenville News. Weston remains the seminal decision interpreting the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and holding that a private foundation affiliated with the University of South Carolina was subject to the Act because of its receipt and expenditure of public funds.

Wyche took an important step toward cementing its status as more than a regional firm by opening an office in Columbia.

In 1996, Henry Parr and Bill Kehl assisted the St. Francis Health System in its successful opposition to the proposed merger of the Greenville Hospital System, Spartanburg Regional Health System, and the Anderson Area Medical Center. This opposition involved a federal investigation, state court litigation, and a public referendum. Ultimately, the people of Greenville County made it clear that they opposed the monopoly that would have been created through the proposed merger.

Greenville’s meteoric rise around the turn of the millennium was exhilarating, but growing pains were an unavoidable accompaniment. One glaring example was the severe overcrowding faced by Greenville County’s schools. There was no place to put the students, and existing methods of funding new schools offered no hope of catching up with the student population. Intrigued by this challenge, developer, entrepreneur, and friend of the firm Bob Hughes devised an innovative technique to allow the Greenville School District to multiply its borrowing power and accelerate construction. Bob and a group of others formed Institutional Resources, LLC to help implement this solution. It quickly became apparent that the innovative solution would face novel legal challenges, so Bob and his team turned to Wyche for assistance. Tommy Wyche, Eric Amstutz, and Ted Gentry worked tirelessly with the Institutional Resources team to overcome a variety of hurdles and to help prepare Greenville to educate another generation of students.

The RiverPlace development is an example of community transformation that took years of diligence and foresight to see through to completion. Tommy Wyche devoted decades of visionary ideas and diligent planning to implement a vision that transformed the neglected area surrounding the Reedy River to a vibrant center of the community. Developed by Hughes Real Estate, led by Bob Hughes and Phil Hughes, RiverPlace is among Greenville’s iconic landmarks.

In 2002 Wyche was recognized for its long history of support for the arts with the Governor’s Award for the Arts in the business division. The award recognized the firm’s history of leadership, as well as visionary ideas, in creating an environment in which the arts have flourished in Greenville.

Wyche represented Atlanta-area home designer Frank Betz Associates against Texas-based D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest home builder, in a lawsuit claiming that D.R. Horton was improperly using Betz’s residential designs. The complex case involved dozens of different home designs, thousands of allegedly infringing homes, and intense litigation over a three-year period in three different federal courts. The case was settled on the eve of trial after Wyche uncovered critical evidence against D.R. Horton and won several key motions for its client. The settlement represented the largest recovery in an architectural copyright case in U.S. history.

Wyche attorneys Henry Parr and David Koysza assisted Milliken in its appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court in 2012 in Milliken v. Morin. The Supreme Court agreed with Wyche’s argument in favor of the enforceability of key provisions of Milliken’s employment agreement. In the process, the decision established important principles regarding the enforceability of invention assignment and confidentiality provisions in employment agreements in South Carolina.

Wyche assisted non-controlling owners of Kiawah Partners in one of the largest and most significant minority shareholder oppression lawsuits in the history of South Carolina. Wyche’s representation resulted in a purchase of the controlling shareholder interests, the sale of the company, and our clients’ receiving full value for their ownership interests.

Wyche has also devoted its time and talents to helping those in need. To ensure the State provides basic needs, safety, and health care to our most vulnerable citizens, Wyche has represented all foster care children in systemic reform litigation against the South Carolina Department of Social Services. This landmark lawsuit was settled by the entry of court orders that set specific benchmark measures and detailed implementation plans that protect all the children who have been removed from their homes and birth parents.

Wyche attorney Marshall Winn represented transgender teen Chase Culpepper in a victory protecting the right of drivers to be photographed as they normally appear, as part of a settlement with the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. The settlement included revisions to the training for SCDMV personnel regarding the rights of LGBTQ applicants and served as a precedent for other states.

The Greenville Symphony Orchestra performed “Moonbeams,” an original work composed by Tommy Wyche, as a celebration of Tommy’s contributions, which spanned music, art, environmental conservation, the legal profession, and community transformation.

Wyche expanded its presence in another important market when it opened its Spartanburg office.

After being promised that they were the owners of the company, over 5,000 employees of Piggly Wiggly – many of whom had been with the company for decades – watched as their retirement funds were wiped out. Wyche took on this notoriously complex and difficult ERISA litigation challenge and recovered more than $8.5 million for those retirees and their families.

Wyche attorneys Marshall Winn, Wallace Lightsey, and Rachael Anna obtained one of the largest judgments in state history for our longtime client Zdenek Bakala, a Czech-American entrepreneur and philanthropist, against a prominent Slovak businessman in a case of extortion under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act and common law defamation, in Federal court in Charleston.

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wyche client, South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff, in Duke Energy’s appeal of the South Carolina Public Service Commission’s decision that Duke Energy could not recover North Carolina environmental costs in its South Carolina rates. Wyche’s Wallace Lightsey argued before the South Carolina Supreme Court that Duke Energy should not be allowed to raise its South Carolina rates in order to recoup over $800 million of expenses it will incur for environmental clean-up actions required by a North Carolina law that applies only to Duke’s properties and activities in that state. The South Carolina Supreme Court decision represented a complete victory for Duke Energy’s South Carolina customers, safeguarding them from unfairly being required to pay for costs incurred solely because of another state’s legislation.

Wyche celebrates 100 Years with the launch of its Centennial Legacy Project. Wyche’s Centennial Legacy Project will continue the firm’s history of legal and community leadership by supporting projects across the state that advance the four pillars that have defined the firm and that continue to form its vision for the future: Advancing the Business Community, Societal Impact, Community Transformation, and Environmental Stewardship.