James Paul Porter

Paul was the 2nd chair in my case which involved defamation and civil conspiracy. It involved my termination that was based on a new manager that recruited members of my staff to misuse a corporate hotline and make false allegations. There were other events that ensued over the course of a 90 day per...iod before I was let go. We took on a major corporation who had retained an attorney that enjoyed telling us more than once that he was a Duke School of Law graduate and he had 30 years of trial experience. He and my lead attorney worked together as a team to present my case and I was included in the intense preparation. Each idea was thoughtfully discussed and we game planned together to make the story flow for a jury. He also provided valuable critique to help me keep my testimony sharper so that the jury would focus on the real issues. We all worked together once we got the jury list to do quick online research of the potential jurors. Paul offered significant input into each name. When J. Paul Porter did the close on my case, he was all of 26 years old. His closing was masterful. He pointed out each inconsistency and argued each point. We were also up against a hostile judge that could hardly contain his admiration for the defense counsel, and key points of our evidence were excluded, including the fact that my manager was not properly licensed in SC to be a nurse at the time she was spreading false statements about my competency and character. So the odds were against us. At the time of our verdict the average defamation in SC brought somewhere between 7-15,000K. Not a bad day's work for "kid" against a seasoned 30 year veteran. Paul is young and a good trial lawyer. The jury responded well to his questioning of witnesses and his closing. The only cure for "youth" is life experience and he is getting that. He has positioned himself in a position of being mentored by one of the best in employment law, J. Lewis Cromer. The verdict was delivered almost 18 months ago. I have stayed in touch w/ both he and my lead attorney. You can't go to war against an impossible opponent and come out w/ a win and not feel a closeness you fought along beside. In my case, it was never about the money, although I did suffer financially b/c of the actions of others. To me, it was about my reputation and the damage that had been done. The size of the verdict was a resounding rebuke of a major corporation and the corruption that has been exposed as being hospital wide.