The Law Firm

Walter B. Todd Jr. started his career as a lawyer after graduation from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1969, and taking the Bar that summer. He had been commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Infantry after graduation for Presbyterian College, in 1966, but the Army gave him a deferment for law school. While in his third year in law school he transferred to The Judge Advocate General's Corps. He served as a captain in that capacity for four years in the Army including service in The Vietnam War where he was the Chief Trial Counsel for the Americal Division and later for the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. He tried many criminal cases in the Army both before, during, and after the War, and earned the Bronze Star for meritorious service in Vietnam. 

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After his final tour of duty at Fort Jackson, S.C., and his honorable discharge from the Army, Walt went to work for the City of Columbia, S.C. as assistant City Attorney for Roy Bates, the City Attorney in 1973. Roy was a partner in the Law Firm of Marchant Bristow and Bates, a law firm established in the late 1950’s and Walt soon joined the firm in 1974, maintaining his job with the City Attorney too, soon becoming the City Prosecutor, and legal advisor to The Chief of Police for the City's Police Department. All in all, Walt was with the City of Columbia for seventeen years or so, serving at the end of his career with the City as a Municipal Court Judge until 1989.

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His law firm went through many changes during this time. Mr. Bristow, who had been a Senator for years in the State Legislature, became a Circuit Court Judge, Mr. Marchant was elected Adjutant General of South Carolina, and Mr. Bates, still the City Attorney, left the firm to be on his own in 1982. At that time James R. (Jim) Barber had joined the firm, and Walt and Jim practiced together for over 20 years as Todd and Barber, soon joined by Tobias (Toby) Ward, until 1997 when Mr. Barber left the firm, after his election as a Circuit Court Judge. Walt and Toby continued their practice until 2011 when Mr. Ward left the firm with associate Derrick Jackson to form his own law firm leaving Walt Todd, as the "last man standing" for this enduring, but constantly changing, law firm.

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Mr. Todd's law practice is quite eclectic to say the least. Since 1991, Walt has been an active arbitrator and mediator throughout the State of South Carolina. He is currently a Certified Arbitrator and Mediator for the Circuit Courts of South Carolina, and the Family Courts, and a certified mediator for the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. To date, he has mediated well over 2000 cases. Mr. Todd has taught Alternative Dispute Resolution as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina Law School, and early on in the 1990’s, he served in many ADR capacities with the Richland County Bar and the South Carolina Supreme Court. Mr. Todd has lectured often on ADR for the Continuing Legal Education Section of the South Carolina Bar, has regularly participated in arbitrator certification training, and in mediator training for the South Carolina Circuit Courts, and the United States Department of Justice. He was named Best Lawyers® Lawyer of the Year for Mediation in 2015.

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Mr. Todd also has an active civil trial practice, mostly in Commercial Litigation, but the Law Firm of Todd and Mitchell also represents many planned unit developments, and condominium regimes with foreclosure work, and governing document revisions, and other miscellaneous legal requirements referred to the firm by HOA boards and management companies, Further, the law firm has a thriving Estate and Probate practice. In addition, Mr. Todd has for many years been a part-time special Circuit Court Judge in Richland County for Diversion Courts managed by the Fifth Circuit Solicitor's Office.