Florence law community remembers Jack Lawson

Jack W. Lawson Jr., former deputy solicitor and chief public defender for South Carolina’s 12th Judicial Circuit, died early Wednesday morning after a long battle with cancer, according to friends close to the Lawson family.

Lawson, 60, was known by many in Florence legal circles for the passionate manner in which he argued cases, giving it everything he had, said colleague and friend Patrick McLaughlin of the Wukela Law Firm.

“He was one of a kind,” McLaughlin said. “Quite the character. If you ever got the chance to watch Jack argue a case, it was a sight to behold.”

A native of Columbia, Lawson earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina in 1973 and 1977, respectively, before entering into private practice. Lawson became a deputy solicitor with the 12th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in 2000, where he worked until becoming the circuit’s chief public defender in 2008.

Ed Clements III, 12th Circuit solicitor, described Lawson as a “dear, dear friend” and the “best trial lawyer I’ve ever seen.

“We had several trials with each other where we would go at it hammer and tong,” Clements said. “But he was doing his job and I was doing my job and you know he was going to fight you hard, but he was going to fight you fairly, ethically and above board.”

Clements described Lawson as a mentor who brought out the best in everyone around him, a capable attorney who was quick on his feet, passionate about his work and his clients.

“He really cared about people. It didn’t matter whether he was prosecuting or he was defending or if it was a civil case, he cared for people,” the solicitor said. “He would fight for people who couldn’t fight for themselves … I’m going to miss him terribly.”

Lawson is survived by his wife, Paula Demetrious Lawson, formerly of Darlington, and their three daughters.

Michael Bell, Florence County public defender, graduated from law school at USC with Lawson and worked with him at the public defender’s office. Bell said Lawson’s office is decorated with pictures of his family and remembers him not just as a great legal mind, but a great person.

“He did not shrink from difficult cases and would fight with tenacity for everyone,” Bell said. “Yet (he was) a man with sense of humor and very kind, kind to the people in (the public defender’s office) and very passionate for his defendants, yet maintaining a very good working relationship.”

Lawson’s style in court was likened to that of “old Southern orators,” a friend said, a dying breed in a profession often defined by slick arguments and sometimes cutthroat tactics. Public defenders and investigators who worked with Lawson shared memories of the man while gathered in their office Wednesday morning. Some knew the man for decades, others just a few years, but all recalled him as someone with integrity, passion, and a fierce advocate who fought for his clients to the point of exhaustion, but also an understanding supervisor with a generous heart and kind soul.

“He never treated you like he was the boss,” Vic Meetze, a public defender who worked with Lawson since 2006, said. “You knew it and you respected him, but his leadership style was that he was a friend first. He loved much and he was much loved. His family was the most important thing in the world to him. He’s just an individual that can’t be replaced.”

“He was certainly more mentor than I felt like he was a boss,” Grayson Smith, another public defender, added.

Kind as he was, going against Lawson in court was always a challenge and something Thomas McKenzie faced on several occasions as an officer with the Lake City Police Department and the Florence County Sheriff’s Office.

Now an investigator with the public defender’s office with Lawson, McKenzie said no one could do what Lawson did in a courtroom.

“He knew the law, he knew how to present cases for court,” he said. “When you go up against him, you had to have your stuff in order. You had to be on your A game.”

Karen Parrott knew Lawson from an early age when her father practiced law against him before she entered the legal game. Lawson was one of a kind, Parrott said, a unique individual from whom so much could be learned.

“There was just only one of Jack and that’s, in a nutshell, why it’s going to be so hard for his family and the legal community and anyone else who knew him” she said. “He loved the law. This wasn’t just a job, it wasn’t just a career: it was his profession. This is what he wanted to do. He just met everything he did with vigor and with commitment, and he made an impact on everybody.”