Reprinted from Briefings: News From and About the People of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP

The State newspaper recently recognized Columbia partner Cory Manning as one of its “20 Under 40,” the 7th annual class of young Midlands professionals on the path to success.

Mr. Manning joined the Firm as an attorney of counsel in 2005. Within two years, he was promoted to partner and currently handles complex business litigation and pre-litigation counseling services for various clients of the firm. Before joining the Firm, Mr. Manning worked at the Ness Motley law firm in Charleston representing state attorneys general in the Medicaid recoupment litigation against the tobacco industry. He also clerked for Judge Robert Parker of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Texas. He returned to South Carolina after working at a national firm in Palo Alto, California, practicing in the areas of securities litigation and internal investigations.

Among his accomplishments and service to the legal profession, Mr. Manning has been instrumental from the onset of development of South Carolina’s Business Court Pilot Program. This specialized court is designed to provide predictability, experience, and efficiency for litigants and the judiciary with respect to business disputes. Nationally recognized for his knowledge and experience in business court development, he frequently provides advisory services, including testimony, to the South Carolina Bar and various state legislatures across the country, most recently to the state of West Virginia. For the past two years, he served as vice-chair of the American Bar Association’s subcommittee on business courts; he assumed the chair of that subcommittee in 2010. He recently chaired a Bar committee that provided a two-year report to the South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice on the status of the pilot program. To quote Robert S. Wells, Executive Director of the South Carolina Bar: “Mr. Manning was instrumental in drawing on the experience of other states and in designing the Business Court Pilot Program….” Mr. Wells also notes that the successful report from the committee Mr. Manning chaired led to the program’s extension.

Mr. Manning is beginning his fourth year as a board member of The Richland SERTOMA Club, an organization involved extensively in fundraising to support sponsorships related to hearing and speech impediments. He has continually come up with unique solutions to challenges the organization has faced in its fundraising and sponsorship. He now chairs the Club Sponsorship Committee, which is a board position. He is also beginning his third year as a board member of the South Carolina Philharmonic, where he also serves on the Executive Committee. Mr. Manning was appointed to the Board in 2008. Says Executive Director Rhonda Hunsinger: “As his leadership qualities became even more apparent, our Board president Bobby Stepp and I asked him to assume the most critical position on the Board – that of Development Chair.” Since that time, he has coordinated multiple campaigns and, despite the current economy, has led the committee in exceeding its 2009 fundraising goal and raising more than half of its June 2010 goal.

A wrestler in high school and college, Mr. Manning attributes his understanding of the value of positive thinking to his high-school coach. “He based his philosophy on two simple themes: believing in (if not celebrating) yourself and acting or thinking in a manner that moved you closer to a goal, be it a state wrestling championship or a balanced life.”

Despite his robust practice, Mr. Manning serves as a mentor to the younger attorneys not only on his team, but throughout the firm. He told the newspaper, “A good mentor is a good listener. A mentor needs to understand the precise type of guidance sought by a potential mentee. Generally, helpful advice addresses a specific issue. … Advice such as ‘work hard, play fair, and keep your head down’ certainly has its place, but it is not likely to be helpful to an individual who has taken the time to seek advice from a mentor.”

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