J. Calhoun Watson, of Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC, joins the South Carolina Bar Foundation’s board of directors. Watson returns to the Foundation Board after having served from 2000 to 2006 and as its president in 2006.
As a member of the Foundation board, Watson will be working with the Bar Foundation to advance justice to all South Carolina citizens through the outreach programs and services offered by the nonprofit’s 18 grantees.
Watson is a managing member of Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC. He received his BA from Wofford College and JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Watson has been very involved in the South Carolina Bar, holding positions such as president of the Bar’s Young Lawyers Division in 1997, secretary in 2011, treasurer in 2012, and is currently president-elect. He has been a member of the House of Delegates since 1997 and has served on the Board of Governors from 1997 to 2000 and again from 2009 to the present.
While recognized by Best Lawyers in America in multiple practice areas annually since 2009, Watson has also received local awards including the Compleat Lawyer Award Silver Medallion from the USC School of Law Alumni Association in 2001 and Historic Columbia’s Innovative Leadership Award in 2010.
Outside of the legal industry, Watson has worked to improve the community as president of the Historic Columbia Foundation from 2007 to 2009 and support his alma mater as president of the Wofford College Alumni Association in 2000.
To learn more about the South Carolina Bar Foundation and the work of its grant organizations, please visit www.scbarfoundation.org.