Meet Charlie

Charlie Ipock is an experienced litigator and negotiator who advises his clients on strategic approaches to help them achieve their goals. He seeks first to understand resolutions desired by his clients and sets forth frameworks through which those resolutions may be reached whether that be through negotiation, litigation, or alternative dispute resolution. Charlie has negotiated trust and estate disputes involving corpus’ well in excess of ten-million dollars and has mediated and resolved over a hundred matters.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Charlie serves as outside counsel for multiple local governments and agencies in South Carolina. He consults with City Administrators, elected officials and Executive Directors on issues such as annexations, condemnations, election law issues, FOIA responses and bond issuances.

Local Government Experience:

• • Serves as the day-to-day outside attorney for multiple municipalities
• • Provides periodic training and seminars to elected officials on developments in the law and best practices
• • Responds to and litigates FOIA requests
• • Has prosecuted multiple condemnations and defended—and won on summary judgment—condemnation challenges
• • Routinely negotiates disputes with vendors on contractual issues, resolves pre-suit matters involving municipal assets such as infrastructure, and advises on day-to-day risk management matters
• • Assisted with the implementation of multiple wholesale updates and changes to Codes of Ordinances
• • Drafted sections of Codes of Ordinances for multiple municipalities so as to implement improved processes for the reduction of blight and to reduce/abate nuisances

TRUST, ESTATE AND PROBATE LITIGATION
Charlie represents trustees, beneficiaries, personal representatives and other fiduciaries and interested persons in trust, estate and probate litigation. Depending on the needs of the client, Charlie has simply assisted beneficiaries in maneuvering through the South Carolina probate process and in other matters he has served as counsel to personal representatives recouping stolen or misappropriated funds in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. With this experience, he has been certified a Circuit Court Mediator and serves as a court-appointed mediator for trust, estate and probate disputes in multiple South Carolina courts.

Trust, Estate and Probate Litigation Experience:

• • In an estate with assets well over $1 million, represented a beneficiary of a Last Will and Testament that included a substantive scrivener's error and he was able to successfully file suit and reform the Last Will and Testament, resulting in his client being declared as the rightful beneficiary of an additional $1 million
• • Defended a personal representative who allegedly committed negligence in his duties as a personal representative and not only received a verdict in his client’s favor, but was awarded attorneys’ fees of over $30,000
• • Represented a successor personal representative in recovering over $100,000 for misappropriated funds by another interested party which was ultimately then returned to rightful beneficiaries
• • Negotiated through mediation a result beneficial to client who was a lifetime beneficiary of a trust in an action by the trustee to severely limit the beneficiary’s distributive shares
• • Through representing a beneficiary of a trust corpus over $50 million recovered stolen funds from another beneficiary who had been allegedly stealing client distributions
• • Represented a spouse who was written out of a Last Will and Testament; however, after petitioning for the elective share and challenging the Last Will and Testament, Charlie negotiated a settlement of nearly double the elective share
• • Taken to verdict or settled dozens of cases alleging or defending undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, elective share disputes and breaches of fiduciary duty

COMMERCIAL LITIGATION
Charlie represents accountants and small business owners in securities litigation and commercial business and insurance disputes. Charlie has obtained over a dozen summary judgments and motions to dismiss, has obtained multiple defense verdicts, and even won a directed verdict for a nationwide insurance client.

Commercial Litigation Experience:

• • Obtained dismissal at summary judgment on behalf of an electrical contractor relative to claims of a co-defendant for equitable indemnification in a premises liability case
• • Received a directed verdict representing a nationally known insurance company in a bad faith claim
• • Represented an owner in a shareholder-squeeze out matter, resulting in a settlement for two-times the loss suffered by the owner pre-suit
• • Obtained defense verdict by jury for a local contractor against a national association
• • Obtained dismissal at summary judgment for a national contractor accused of unfair trade practices
• • Obtained dismissal at summary judgment for a mechanical contractor in a license lending/construction defect case
• • Obtained summary judgment on a claim against a Fortune 500 company for an open and obvious condition

• Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, MCM, 2023
• St. Mary’s University, J.D., 2013
• N.C. State University, B.S., magna cum laude, 2009

• South Carolina, 2013
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina, 2014
• U.S. District Court, South Carolina, 2014

• Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch Commercial Litigation (2022-2024), Litigation – Trusts and Estates (2021-2024) and Municipal Law (2024)
• South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers Division “Stars of the Quarter” Award (2017)
• Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judicial Intern
• St. Mary’s Law Journal, Editor in Chief
• Graduated in top 5% of his law school class
• Recipient of American Law Institute’s Continuing Legal Education Scholarship and Leadership Award which is awarded to a graduating student at St. Mary’s University best representing scholarship and leadership

• South Carolina Bar, CLE Committee Chair (2018-Present), Publications Committee
• South Carolina Bar, House of Delegates Member (2018-Present)
• Florence County Probate Court, Mental Health Court Pro Bono Counsel
• Williamsburg County School District Community Partner, June 2021
• McLeod Health, Fellow (Class of 2018), Volunteer Chaplain
• McLeod Health, Past Member of the Children’s Hospital Golf Classic Committee
• South Carolina Junior Golf Association, Committee Member
• American Heart Association, Pee Dee Heart Ball Executive Leadership Team 2018
• South Carolina Probate Bench/Bar, CLE Course Planner/Moderator 2017
• National Conference of Law Reviews, Board Member (2012-2013)
• Leadership Florence, Graduate
• St. Mary’s University School of Law Alumni Association
• PGA of America, past affiliate
• Bishopville Presbyterian Church, Clerk of Session
• PADI Certified Open Water Scuba Diver

• "The $27.3 Million Tax Cut Nobody Knows About," HSB Blog, November 3, 2022
• “Managing Your Liability When Clients Breach Their Fiduciary Duties,” HSB 2019 Corporate Law for Accountants Seminar Series
• "Keeping the Walls Up: Tips for Avoiding Amalgamation," HSB 2018 Corporate Law for Accountants Seminar Series
• "The South Carolina Litigation Handbook," South Carolina Bar, 2015
• "A Practitioner’s Guide to the South Carolina Business Court," Journal for Alternative Dispute Resolution, 2015
• "Digital Estate Planning for the 21st Century," Shavano Park Magazine, June 2014