Ken H. Lester

Columbia divorce lawyer Ken H. Lester has offices in Columbia and Beaufort/Hilton Head, South Carolina. He received his B.S. and J.D. degree from the University of South Carolina. He is a Diplomat in the American College of Family Trial Lawyers, an organization limited to the top 100 family court trial lawyers in the United States. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and served as President of the South Carolina chapter. The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers consists of 1,700 of the top matrimonial attorneys in the United States and Canada. For 25 years, Mr. Lester has served on the faculty of the National Family Law Trial Institute at South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas, which is held for nine (9) days each year where 48 lawyers from across the United States are taught to litigate family law cases. South Texas College of Law is nationally known for its award-winning trial advocacy program and holds more trial advocacy awards (over 100) than any other law school in the United States of America. Its advocacy program consistently ranks among the top ten in the United States each year by the US News and World Report.

Mr. Lester served as the Chairman of the Family Law Section of the South Carolina Bar and served as the Section Delegate to the South Carolina Bar House of Delegates. He served as Chairman of the Family Law Committee of the South Carolina Association of Justice and is currently a member of the South Carolina Association of Justice where he has served on the Board. He is also former Chairman of the Richland and Lexington County Bar Family Law Committees. He taught the Family Law portion of the South Carolina Bar Review course which is taught twice each year to lawyers preparing for the South Carolina Bar exam. Mr. Lester is the former Chairman of the South Carolina Child Support Guidelines Sub-committee and has served on all of the update committees.

Mr. Lester has written and continues to write on various issues dealing with South Carolina Family Law in addition to speaking, and coordinating numerous Continuing Legal Education and Judicial Continuing Legal Education Seminars locally and nationally. Mr. Lester served as the chairman of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Children Committee and served as a member on the five member Same-Sex Marriage Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He was a member of the American Bar Association Same-Sex Marriage Committee and Products Development Committee. He is the author of the Chapter on Protection of Marriage by Statute and Constitutions on the American Bar Association’s White Paper on Same-Sex issues.