Firm News, Accolades

Watson “Lawyer of the Year,” 6 others also included in The Best Lawyers in America

COLUMBIA, SC – Cal Watson, managing member of Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC, has been honored as the “Bet the Company” Litigation Lawyer of the Year, while six of his colleagues at the firm have also been recognized in the same national publication.

The 2015 edition of The Best Lawyers in America places the Sowell Gray members among the top in their practice areas. The “Bet the Company” award Watson received is presented annually to a single outstanding lawyer within each practice area and city.

Watson received this honor for his work representing businesses of all sizes in high-stakes litigation in which the very survival of the company was at stake. According to Best Lawyers, the lawyers honored as “Lawyers of the Year,” such as Watson, have received particularly high ratings in surveys from their peers.

The seven attorneys are being recognized across a variety of practice areas:

  • Grady Beard, Workers’ Compensation Law, Employers
  • Betsy Gray, “Bet the Company” Litigation and Commercial Litigation
  • Becky Laffitte, Insurance Law; Litigation, Construction; Personal Injury Litigation, Defendants; Product Liability Litigation, Defendants; Transportation Law
  • Biff Sowell, “Bet the Company” Litigation and Commercial Litigation
  • Bobby Stepp, “Bet the Company” Litigation and Commercial Litigation
  • Monty Todd, Personal Injury Litigation, Defendants
  • Cal Watson, “Bet the Company” Litigation Lawyer of the Year; Commercial Litigation; Professional Malpractice, Defendants

The directory, which thousands of lawyers and corporations use annually, is regarded as a definitive guide to the legal profession in the United States. Based on confidential evaluations by the top attorneys in the country, the guide is advertisement-free and no fee is required to be included. All attorneys included in the publication are subject to peer review within both their practice areas and their cities.

Best Law Firms in America, a companion publication to Best Lawyers, is to be released in the fall. For the past four years, Sowell Gray has been included in Best Law Firms. Individual attorneys have been honored for more than a decade, dating back to Sowell’s inclusion in the 2001 edition.