The Circle of Life and Law

When he wasn’t riding scooters with friends in the parking lot, Johnny Kornegay’s childhood chores included hauling flowers and holding doors for grieving servicegoers. Growing up in his family’s funeral parlor just 150 steps from his front door in Camden, Kornegay’s encounters with death were a routine part of life. In his late teens, he made house calls to the bereaved, helping determine the best way to transport a body.

“My daddy did this work, my granddaddy did it and my great-granddaddy did it,” says Kornegay, now 38 and a licensed funeral director himself. “I certainly understood the seriousness of it, but my view of it was, ‘This is just something my family does.’”

Yet those early experiences taught Kornegay empathy, patience and how to comfort people in life’s hardest moments. Today, these skills define his career as an estate planning and administration lawyer.

“My work feels like a natural extension of the funeral industry,” he says. “It’s full circle.”

There may be a straight line between Kornegay’s upbringing and current role, but his career path has been anything but linear. As a psychology student at the University of South Carolina, he spent one summer working as a roofer at the Fort Jackson Army training center, lugging shingles in sweltering heat. That instilled a perseverance that serves him well, particularly when navigating tricky client conversations. 

“People don’t like to talk about their demise. And it gets awkward when there are complicated family dynamics—third, fourth, even fifth marriages,” Kornegay says. “But there is so much intrinsic joy in helping families through this. You just have to keep chugging.”

Another undergraduate summer saw Kornegay become the Bojangles chicken man. At several locations throughout the state, he breakdanced in a synthetic bird suit to draw customers inside the fast food joint, all while “trying not to become a piece of fried chicken myself.” Despite gallons of sweet tea consumed to ward off heat stroke, Kornegay found himself losing pounds—and maybe a little dignity. But as customers pulled over to laugh and take his photo, he discovered something that’s become a guiding career principle: “I like making people feel good,” he says. “If I can get a smile out of somebody, that’s all I need.”

Following college, Kornegay did another stint at the funeral parlor before graduate school. Then, for South Carolina’s Budget and Control Board, he helped oversee 

HR at more than a dozen state agencies. The work gave him a grounding in employment law, sparking a fascination with the legal system that eventually led him to a J.D.

This February, Kornegay celebrated the one-year anniversary of his eponymous private practice. “I have a perspective not all attorneys do,” he says. “When it comes to estate administration, I know the process these families have been through before meeting with me.” 

All of this proximity to death can, at times, weigh heavy. Kornegay nearly changed his focus during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he lost his own grandfather and “there was just so much sadness all around.” Instead, he leaned into empathy.  

“It’s been said that estate planners are the ‘warm and fuzzies’ of the legal profession,” Kornegay says. “You have to be open, approachable and relatable for all walks of life, because this area of the law touches everyone.”

Despite his feeling of fulfillment and his varied resume, there’s still one professional aspiration he hasn’t realized.

“I told my middle-school guidance counselor I wanted to be a talk show host,” Kornegay says. “Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet—but who knows where this career will lead.”