Emotional & Invaluable

Every year, more than 30,000 South Carolinians report a domestic violence incident, according to the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Over their lifetimes, 42% of women and 29% of men in the state will experience violence and/or stalking involving an intimate partner. And dozens of incidents every year lead to fatalities. So when Emily Gifford Lucey, fresh out of law school, heard about a pro bono program to prosecute criminal domestic violence cases with South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, she jumped at it.

“It was a great opportunity to work on trial skills, to push me out of my box of civil litigation into a criminal environment where the rules and procedures are different, and to assist the victims,” she says. “So many of us are fortunate in our practices and our lives, it’s incumbent to give some of that back.”

In 2006, Gifford Lucey took the AG’s training program to learn the trial techniques and unique situations she might encounter prosecuting these cases. Once she was prepared, the program coordinator would send her a case file, and she’d meet a victim, speak with responding officers, collaborate with victim advocates, coordinate with defense counsel, and work up the case. “Generally, we’d go to a half-day jury trial,” Gifford Lucey says.

The cases were always first offense CDV in municipal court (subsequent offenses are kicked up to more seasoned prosecutors), and Gifford Lucey took up to one or two per year while participating in the program for more than a decade. The cases that stand out most often involved children. “Which was heartbreaking,” she says.

“So many of us are fortunate in our practices and our lives, it’s incumbent to give some back.”

Another case is memorable for a different reason: “My client was a gentleman. He had gone into the system to challenge the expectation that men were not [domestic violence] victims. It takes a lot for any victim to call the police and seek help or press charges, so I thought he was brave in doing this and, challenging not the status quo, but the familiarly held belief that it is only women who suffer.”

Gifford Lucey quickly found herself invested in her clients, she says. “But you have to set that aside at trial so you can focus on getting the job done. It was always emotional to hear their story. And when you’re working on an opening statement, you want to capture the struggle—to portray the story to the jury in a very emotional way, but also in a professional way.”

The burden was heavy, especially on the rare occasion when her client would lose. “I tended to take on more of the emotion than I should have,” Gifford Lucey says. “That’s something that I always did as a young lawyer: felt the gravity of it and tried to remedy the wrong that had been perpetrated against the victim. So it was definitely sobering. It was a good learning experience that my personality and demeanor were better suited for civil litigation.”

In one of Gifford Lucey’s first trials, she rested her case and moved for a directed verdict. “The defense lawyer looked at me and was like, ‘We don’t do that here,’” she recalls with a laugh. “A little humility is good for everybody, particularly young lawyers. And it reinforces that you need to know the rules of evidence and the rules of civil procedure. So I’ll never forget that; it was a good teachable moment.”

Gifford Lucey built other valuable skills, too—namely, thinking on the fly and relating to clients. “Even in construction, particularly when we’re defending architects and engineers, it can be very personal when someone is attacking your design or your work,” she says of her day job. “So, while it’s emotional in a different way, it helped me learn how to engage and interact with clients and learn their story and craft a defense based on key points in the story. It’s just such a great program and great idea. I’m glad to have been a part of it.”