Alana Odom Williams is a partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. She practices in Columbia in the areas of business litigation, complex consumer and financial services litigation, and insurance coverage and bad faith claims.

A member of the South Carolina Bar, Ms. Williams is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Ms. Williams has experience in handling business litigation matters in federal and state courts, arbitrations, actions before regulatory/administrative agencies, and special proceedings. She has successfully argued in courts on numerous occasions seeking the enforcement of arbitration agreements. 

In the insurance area, Ms. Williams represents numerous life, health and disability insurance companies in litigation. She has defended bad faith claims, asserted rescission claims based on material misrepresentations, litigated beneficiary and policy administration issues and brought numerous interpleader actions in federal and state court.  She has experience defending claims involving variable and whole life products, and has litigated claims on conditional receipts, intoxication exclusions and accidental death claims.

Ms. Williams is a member of the American Bar Association and participates in the Section of Business Law.   Ms. Williams serves as a vice chair of the Young Lawyers subcommittee of the ABA's Consumer Financial Services Committee.   Active in the South Carolina Bar, Ms. Williams previously served as the 5th Circuit Representative and sat on the Executive Committee for the Young Lawyers Division of the South Carolina Bar. She also served as the Editor of The Bar Tab, a publication produced by the Young Lawyers Division of the South Carolina Bar, when it won national honors from the American Bar Association's YLD. Ms. Williams is also active in the Richland County Bar Association and is a member of the Columbia Lawyers Association, South Carolina Women Lawyers Association, and the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association.

Ms. Williams serves the community by volunteering through the Junior League of Columbia and is a board member for Hope In Christ Ministries.

Prior to attending law school, Ms. Williams was a business journalist with a leading newspaper. She received the 1999 South Carolina Media Appreciation Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

In 2002, Ms. Williams earned a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law where she was Articles Editor for the ABA Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal. She was a member of the Black Law Student Association, Women in Law and a student member of the John Belton O'Neall Inn of Court.  In 1996, Ms. Williams earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.