Edward W. Mullins, Jr., is of counsel to the Firm. He joined Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in 1959. He is resident in Columbia where he practices in the areas of product liability, business, and general litigation. Mr. Mullins has long held positions of Firm leadership. He served as chairman of the Firm from 1997 to 2000 and in that position chaired the Firm's Executive Committee, a governing body of five partners who oversee the standing committees, strategic initiatives, and overall operations of the Firm.

An active trial lawyer for 50 years, Mr. Mullins is Chair Emeritus of the Firm and its Litigation Department and was instrumental in the growth of the law firm from five attorneys to more than 400 attorneys and government relations professionals with 12 offices in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, DC, West Virginia, Tallahassee, and Boston.

A member of the South Carolina Bar since 1959, Mr. Mullins is admitted to practice before the South Carolina Circuit Court, the South Carolina Supreme Court, and the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. He has served as faculty for many continuing legal education seminars and programs where he has spoken on various subjects related to the civil justice system, product liability, damages, trial tactics, and tort reform, and he has designed practical educational programs for young attorneys on the importance and benefits of legal marketing.

In 2008, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Inns of Court Foundation, the national organization of the local Inns of Courts. He was elected in 2007 to the Board of the National Center for State Courts, the arm of and the leading resource center for the state court systems and trade associations for them and the conference of Chief Justices.

Mr. Mullins is a Fellow of the American and South Carolina Bar Associations, a diplomat of the American Board of Trial Attorneys, and a fellow, former committee chair, state chair, and Regent of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier professional organizations in the country. Mr. Mullins is a member of the Defense Research Institute (former president and chair), the Lawyers For Civil Justice (former president and chair), a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (former vice president and board member), and the International Association of Defense Counsel, where he taught in its 1984 Trial Clinic. He is a member of the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association and a past president.

He is a master in the John Belton O'Neall Inn of Court, a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (former member of executive committee), a member of the Richland County Bar Association (former member of executive committee), and the South Carolina Bar Public Relations Committee. He is a permanent member of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference.

Mr. Mullins is the recipient of numerous awards for service to the legal profession, including the Robert W. Hemphill Award given by the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association in 1989. In 1991, he received the John Watson Williams Award, given by the Richland County Bar Association for outstanding service to the Richland Bar and the local community. In 2002, he received the Compleat Lawyer Award, given by the University of South Carolina School of Law for outstanding service to the law school and legal community.

Additionally, Mr. Mullins has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America and in the International Who's Who of Product Liability Lawyers since their first editions. He was listed in the inaugural edition of South Carolina Super Lawyers in 2008 and was listed again from 2009-2012.

He has an extensive background in leadership positions in community organizations. He is a former board member for the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics Foundation, a former member of the Advisory Board to the University of South Carolina Medical School, a former president and board chair of the Richland County Sertoma Club (service club), and a former board member of the American Red Cross SC Region.

Mr. Mullins has been instrumental in capital campaigns for numerous charitable organizations. He has chaired the Tocqueville Society of the United Way of the Midlands, a society whose members donate more than $10,000 per year. He also is a former chair of the annual March of Dimes Walk. He serves as a board member of the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism at the University of South Carolina School of Law, for the establishment of which he was instrumental in raising $1 million as a gift from the Firm. He has participated in the leadership of several campaigns for the USC law school. In 2007, he was named the Individual Fundraiser of the Year by the Not-for-Profit Association of the Midlands.

A longtime advocate for people with mental illness, Mr. Mullins chaired the Mental Health Association of America for two years and served on its board for six years. As former chair of the Columbia Mental Health Center, he led the Business Sponsorship Committee of the First Annual Walk of the Columbia Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and was instrumental in the effort of this association that raised more than $100,000. A former senior vestryman in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, he chaired a major fundraising drive for the church as former chair of the annual church Canvass Campaign.

Mr. Mullins is the author of several articles in various legal publications and speaks and lectures at numerous legal and public forums. He is the author of

• "The Use and Abuse of Interrogatories," The Practical Lawyer, 1983; 
• "Who Is Mary Carter and Why Is She Saying All of Those Nasty Things About My Pretrial Settlements?" For the Defense, Vol. 23, No. 12, December 1981; 
• "Investigating a Product Liability Case," The Adjusters Report, 1978; and 
• "Revocation of Professional Licenses," South Carolina Law Quarterly, 1958.

In 1959, Mr. Mullins earned a Bachelor of Laws, cum laude, from the University of South Carolina School of Law where he was a member of the Order of Wig and Robe and Phi Delta Phi. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in French from the University of South Carolina in 1957.