(May 14, 2012) -- South Carolina Legal Services and the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center will each receive grants from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough to help provide charitable legal services to children. The organizations will use the grants to hire summer law clerks who will work on children's issues. SC Appleseed will hire law clerks to work on children's hunger and education issues in Charleston, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, and Greenville. S.C. Legal services will hire interns for various children's issues.    

Nelson Mullins maintains a donor directed foundation fund to provide yearly assistance to organizations that serve the legal needs of low-income children. The law firm has provided both organizations Fellowship grants to support attorneys working on children's issues since the program's inception in 1997.

"Nelson Mullins' partnership and support over the years has helped to sustain the provision of civil legal services to the low income community in South Carolina, and we are extremely appreciative," said Andrea Loney, executive director of S.C. Legal Services.

"Children are among the most underrepresented in the legal system, and the addition of summer law clerks can help us reach more of those in need," added Sue Berkowitz, executive director of SC Appleseed.

South Carolina Legal Services (SCLS) provides free legal services in civil (non-criminal) legal matters to eligible low income residents of South Carolina. SCLS is a nonprofit corporation, funded by grants from the federally funded Legal Services Corporation, the South Carolina Bar Foundation, the South Carolina Bar, local United Ways, state court filing fees, and other federal, state and local funding.

SC Appleseed serves the needs for the low-income community through legal work, economic development, social legislation, and educational work.

Established in 1897, Nelson Mullins has more than 430 attorneys and government relations professionals with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Nashville, Tallahassee, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and throughout the Carolinas. For more information on the Firm, go to www.nelsonmullins.com, or call 803.255.9794.