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University of South Carolina School of Law
University of South Carolina Graduate School
University of South Carolina
South Carolina
Carmen Harper Thomas is an associate of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP who practices in Columbia in business litigation, focusing on consumer financial services. Ms. Thomas has been involved in litigation and client projects addressing a variety of specific financial services issues, including the following:
- Truth in Lending Act;
- Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act;
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act;
- Fair Credit Reporting Act;
- Federal SAFE Act and South Carolina’s implementing statute;
- Dodd-Frank Act, including loan originator compensation provisions;
- Mortgage foreclosure and affidavit issues;
- Home Affordable Modification Program and South Carolina’s Supreme Court order addressing the program;
- Uniform Commercial Code; and
- Taxation and cancellation of indebtedness.
She also has experience with public utility issues and employment litigation.
Ms. Thomas has been involved in various aspects of South Carolina’s Business Court Pilot Program, including working with a committee appointed by Chief Justice Jean Toal to evaluate the Business Courts. She has Ms. Thomas co-authored two several publications related to business courts:
- American Bar Association, Annual Review of Developments in Business and Commercial Litigation, Chapter 5: Business Courts (2011 and 2012).
- Getting Down to Business: The Successes of the SC Business Court Pilot Program, S.C. Lawyer 12 (Jan. 2010); and
- South Carolina's Business Court Pilot Program, S.C. Lawyer 30 (May 2008).
Ms. Thomas is a member of the Richland County Bar Association's Public Service Committee, the John Belton O’Neall Inn of Court, and the South Carolina Women Lawyers' Association. From 2008 to 2010, she served as Vice-Chair of the Business Litigation Committee of the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys Association and is involved with that organization’s Young Lawyers Division.
Ms. Thomas is a former planning manager for the S.C. Department of Commerce, where she developed annual plans for federal funding used for statewide economic development, infrastructure, community facilities, and housing development and rehabilitation projects. She also has worked as a state planner for the South Carolina Energy Office within the S.C. State Budget and Control Board, where she coordinated the annual Strategic Energy Action Plan and researched and implemented energy use and renewable energy policies for South Carolina, including solar, fuel cell, biomass, and transportation efficiency projects.
She is a former law clerk for the S.C. Senate Judiciary Committee and was a legislative aide and page in the S.C. House of Representatives.
She earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 2007 from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where she served as editor in chief of the South Carolina Law Review. She received CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Securities Regulation and Media Law and was named to the Order of the Wig and Robe. She also was a member of the Pro Bono Board, a student member of the John Belton O'Neall Inn of Court, and a member of Phi Delta Phi, Calhoun Inn.
She earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of South Carolina in 2002. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications, cum laude, from the University of South Carolina Honors College in 1999.
Ms. Thomas has authored the following articles:
- Effect of Changes to Federal Law on Mortgage Originator Compensation., July 2010, Lexology.
- LLCs are Off and Running: Historic Charleston Holdings, LLC v. Mallon, Accountings and Derivative Actions in LLC Litigation," 57 S.C. L. Rev. 441 (2006).