Practicing Law, Then Making It

In this age of extremism, say attorney-politicians, there’s never been a more critical time for experienced lawyers to enter the political arena—local, state and beyond. Who better to create the law, they point out, than those who practice it daily?

“We need people who care about reason and truth. We so need more lawyers in political office who understand and appreciate the role of the rule of law,” says Max Hyde Jr., who has served in the South Carolina House of Representatives, District 32, since 2018. “You would be shocked to observe the ignorance about our constitutional system and the role of the rule of law among many legislators, particularly a lot of them who are not grounded in the law. Our system works only as well as the quality of the servants who commit themselves to the cause.”

WHY LAW?

Ronnie A. Sabb, Sabb Law Group; Personal Injury – General: Plaintiff; Kingstree: I was working at the hospital as a mental health technician, and I was fortunate enough to get a job teaching. I worked both jobs full time. I liked the idea of the money that I was making, but I knew that I couldn’t keep that schedule up indefinitely. So I decided to look at medical school and law school. I did a comparative analysis of the two and decided that law was where I needed to land.

Max T. Hyde Jr., Hyde Law Firm; Family Law, Eminent Domain, Personal Injury; Spartanburg: I’ve been an avid reader since a young age and have always been drawn to political biography. So many of our great political leaders in American history have been lawyers. I started working at a law firm in junior high school. I was given a bottle of Roundup and told to go out in the heat and kill the weeds, tie up these prickly bushes that made my hands bleed. But eventually I made it inside the firm and worked as a runner in high school. I’ve been involved in and around the law ever since.

Deon T. Tedder, Rogers Patrick Westbrook & Brickman; Personal Injury – General: Plaintiff; Mount Pleasant: When I was in middle school, North Carolina Central University used to do the Legal Eagle camp and introduce us to the Constitution, laws and how they work. At the end of that summer, we actually did a mock trial. I really enjoyed that because we had to do both sides of the issue and I was able to advocate for people. In middle school, I went to a magnet school [in Durham], and we had a courtroom, and the law school would actually come there and use it. We did another mock trial, and that time I was a key witness, a pathologist.

Tom Young Jr., Young & Thurmond; General Litigation; Aiken: I originally thought that I wanted to be a doctor and I went to a “future medical student day” at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. After touring the gross anatomy lab, I decided I didn’t want to be a doctor. I had an interest in government and politics, and I just got real interested in the law. I was a United States Senate floor page for Senator Strom Thurmond when I was in high school, and my interest in the law grew more.

THE PLUNGE INTO POLITICS

Sabb: In 1988, I was elected to the Williamsburg County School District Board of Trustees as an at-large member. In 1990, I got appointed as an assistant solicitor, and under our Constitution you can’t occupy both offices, so I just served as an assistant solicitor for 20 years. In 2020, I was widowed and my daughter was graduating high school, and I had done everything that I could think of as far as prosecuting cases is concerned, and the representative from the area was retiring. I thought it was a good opportunity for me to continue my public service but to do something different.

Hyde: The firm that I worked at when I was a boy had a succession of people who had served in the state House. I just can’t help myself. I love politics. I eat, drink and breathe it. In 2018, only a few months into my service on the Spartanburg City Council, this House seat unexpectedly popped open.

Tedder: I graduated high school in June of 2008 and one month later my dad passed away. Unbeknownst to us, when Ted Kennedy had his brain surgery at Duke University Hospital, my dad was the concierge for his family. Once my dad passed, the Kennedy family reached out to us, asked me my plans, and offered for me to apply to intern in his office the summer after my first year of college. That was my first exposure to any type of politics.

When I’m in the courtroom, there are times even the judges will say, “I agree with you, but my hands are tied because that’s the statute.” So instead of being frustrated all the time, I just said, “You know what? The easy way to do this is to run for office.”

Young: It was not something that I had planned. Skipper Perry was the representative at the time, and he announced in late February of 2008 that he was not going to run again, and the filing period was about to start. I literally had to make a decision overnight. And after discussing it with my family, and praying about it, I entered the race. I served in the South Carolina House for four years, and in 2012 my predecessor in the South Carolina Senate also announced on the eve of filing that he was not going to run again. After a couple of days of discussing it and praying about it, I decided to enter the race and I was elected.

UNEXPECTED TURNS

Sabb: I knew that the position was demanding. But I had no idea that I would be thrust into doing a lot of national interviews, as a result of Senator Clementa Pinckney being killed [by a white supremacist at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston in 2015]. Fortunately, I felt comfortable enough to speak to America on those issues.

Hyde: I kind of knew what I’d be getting. All three years of law school, I clerked at the House Judiciary Committee. I’d seen what life might be like as a representative. I had no illusions.

Tedder: What shocked me when I became a legislator is how many people that are elected don’t take the time to read and thoroughly vet these bills and understand the language, and they will push legislation that has these unintended consequences. My biggest pet peeve is people pushing bills and not taking the time to understand what the collateral effects are.

Young: It requires an enormous time commitment. It’s not just going to session three days a week from January into early June. There’s always something to be doing, whether it’s communicating with and attending meetings with constituents, going to meetings with other legislators and policymakers outside of session, reading material so that you can stay up-to-date on issues, meeting with heads of different agencies around the state.

BALANCING ACT

Sabb: I was fortunate to find love again and marry. But trying to find time for the wife, the grandkids, to have a quality of life while you’re doing this, is unquestionably the greatest challenge. You’re forced to kind of look at it day by day because, a lot of times, you just don’t know what the day is going to bring. It’s important to rest, to think, and not just do.

Hyde: To a certain extent, it’s a zero-sum game. Time is a limited commodity. If I’m doing one thing well, I feel like maybe I’m not doing something else well. It certainly puts a massive strain on everybody around you and yourself. It’s hard on your family. It’s hard on your law firm. I work very hard. I don’t sleep much. I put my family first. If I have a basketball game for a child versus a reception in Columbia,
I go to my child’s basketball game.

Tedder: One thing I appreciate is that our Supreme Court gives lawyer-legislators protection, which means basically that if we’re in Columbia and we’re doing anything legislative-related, we can have a [court case] continuance granted. Most of the time the litigants on the other side want that anyway to work out a schedule. When I am in Charleston, typically Mondays and Fridays, I do try to set my course cases, or any hearings, for those days to keep things moving.

Young: You have to be a very effective manager of time—with the ability to delegate. It may mean that you’re maybe not doing as much with your hobbies as you have in the past. I don’t play nearly as much golf as I used to play, but I do everything I can to try to still spend time with my family.

THE LEGAL EDGE

Sabb: I don’t believe there’s anybody in a better position to be a lawmaker than one who is legally trained. I wouldn’t say it’s a marriage made in heaven, but I think it is a good marriage.

Hyde: Almost every day, something comes up in my political life in which I’m aided by my legal training. If you want to be a surgeon, it’s helpful to be a doctor. If you have an issue or a bill that you want to promote, it’s like preparing for a trial. You have to thoroughly brief yourself on all aspects. You have to have a game plan of how you’re going to win. You have to be able to count votes, which means you need to be able to read people. Lawyers are good at reading people.

Tedder: Being in practice gives you a unique perspective on being a legislator. Even with civil matters with insurance companies and caps on settlements, I see all of the unintended consequences of legislating in the courtroom. I do believe there’s a benefit to being a lawyer, because we are trained to understand policy and law—and how it is applied and interpreted. Words matter, and that’s the one thing that legal training has given us. One word can make a difference in the intent on how a law is applied. There’s an added benefit in being a lawyer-legislator.

Young: I think that having a legal background and legal training allows you to be effective in drafting legislation, making amendments to legislation, and trying to anticipate how bills may play out and what needs to be done to improve them so that they are as tailored and effective in addressing the issue as possible without creating unforeseen problems down the road after they become law.

PROUDEST POLITICAL MOMENTS

Sabb: The passage of the [Act 40] roads bill, where we got a tax passed that allocates all of the money to roads and bridges, in 2017. I was essentially a freshman senator selected to be part of a group who was charged with the responsibility of trying to get that done, and it was something that had been tried for the past 30-some odd years. Another proud moment was when we were able to establish free technical college education for our kids.

Hyde: I was able to secure $20 million of funding in last year’s budget that’s a major piece of making possible a new minor league baseball team in Spartanburg. I’ve been part of securing $15 million of funding that will be our Saluda Grade Trail, kind of like Greenville County has [with the Swamp Rabbit Trail]. That’ll be a game changer.

Tedder: The first bill that I passed, establishing HBCU Day. This allows for every HBCU student in South Carolina to come up to the State House every third Tuesday of February. This has opened a door of access; since passing this bill, HBCU students now have internships with their legislators. That will encourage them to run for office someday just because they had the exposure.

Young: I was the delegation chairman for our county legislative delegation when we were able to bring back approximately $170 million in state funds that are being invested in Aiken County.

ADVICE FOR NEWBIES

Sabb: It’s important for you to realize that, while you’re in Columbia, over the course of those six months, you’re really not going to make any money. You have to prepare yourself, financially, for a drop-off in pay, especially if you’re a solo practitioner. I ran in a special election, then it was time to go back to Columbia. And I didn’t plan well when I did that, so I essentially had 18 months of very little income.

Young: You have to understand that it requires a lot of hard work, good time management skills and effective organizational skills, and you have to have the ability to delegate responsibilities.

Tedder: Know that it’s a sacrifice. It’s a time commitment. I would encourage people to run but also make sure that you have a good setup, a staff person, a good paralegal that can handle things while you’re out. We practice law based on the law and we make arguments based on the statutes, so to be able to make the practice of law better, and more equal and fair, I think that’s important.

Max T. Hyde Jr. (Republican)

• 2018: Spartanburg City Council
• 2018-present: South Carolina House of Representatives, District 32
• Committee: Ways and Means; Chair, Spartanburg County Legislative Delegation

Ronnie Sabb (Democrat)

• 1988-1990: Williamsburg County School District Board of Trustees
• 2010-2014: South Carolina House of Representatives, District 101
• 2014-present: South Carolina Senate, District 32
• Committees: Agriculture and Natural Resources; Judiciary; Labor, Commerce and Industry; Rules; Medical Affairs

Deon Tedder (Democrat)

• 2020-2023: South Carolina House of Representatives, District 109
• 2024-present: South Carolina Senate, District 42
• Committees: Judiciary; Medical Affairs; Family and Veterans’ Services; Corrections and Penology; Fish, Game and Forestry

Tom Young Jr. (Republican)

• 2009-2012: South Carolina House of Representatives, District 81
• 2012-present: South Carolina State Senate, District 24
• Committees: Finance; Education; Rules; Fish, Game and Forestry; Family and Veterans’ Services; Oversight; Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council; Savannah River Maritime Commission; Chair, Aiken County Legislative Delegation