Duke R. Highfield is a partner at Clement Rivers, LLP, where he serves as chair of four of the Firm’s Practice Groups: Educational Institution Liability, Products Liability, Retail Liability and Trucking and Transportation. Duke represents a wide array of nationwide and local clients, primarily with an emphasis on defending those clients in pending or threatened litigation in South Carolina and the Southeast. Duke and his team are also available, 24/7, to handle catastrophic losses and accident investigations. In addition to the team’s attorneys, we provide a network of experts, investigators and field adjusters, all available at any time.
Duke is an experienced and successful trial attorney, having tried to conclusion an extensive variety of cases over the past 25 years.
Duke has been selected by his peers as Best Lawyers ® 2019 Lawyer of the Year for Charleston in the specialty of Litigation-Insurance. Only a single lawyer in each practice area in the community is honored with the “Lawyer of the Year” award.
Duke has also been accepted as a member of ABOTA, the American Board of Trial Advocates. ABOTA is dedicated to the highest ethical and technical standards of trial advocacy. It is an invitation only organization, which only accepts attorneys who have completed at least 10 civil trials as lead counsel and who demonstrate high personal character and an honorable reputation.
Duke was selected for inclusion in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 editions of The Best Lawyers in America. Duke has also received the AV Preeminent™ Rating Judicial Edition, which is the highest possible rating an attorney may receive for both legal ability and ethical standards.
Duke is also the chair of the Firm’s Marketing Committee.
Admitted to practice
- South Carolina, 1991
Education
- University of South Carolina School of Law, J.D., 1991
- Emory University, B.A., 1988
Awards
Memberships
- South Carolina Bar
- American Bar Association, Litigation Committee, Products Liability Subcommittee, Transportation Committee
- ALFA International: Member, Transportation Practice Group Steering Committee (1997 – present); Member, Products Liability Practice Group Steering Committee (2000 – present); Member, Hospitality Practice Group Steering Committee (2010 – present)
- ALFA International Board Member (2007 – 2010)
- Chair, ALFA Transportation Practice Group (2006 – 2007)
- Program Chair, ALFA Transportation Practice Group (2004 – 2005)
- Former Editor and co-Editor, ALFA International “Transport Update”
- American Trucking Association
- Transportation Lawyers Association
- Association for Transportation Law, Logistics and Policy
- Defense Research Institute
- South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys Association
- South Carolina Trucking Association
Articles / case studies
- South Carolina Supreme Court Affirms Summary Judgment Based on Pre-Market Approval under the Medical Device Amendments of 1976, by Duke R. Highfield and Brandt R. Horton
- Court of Appeals Upholds Trial Judge’s “Change Of Heart” in Trucking Case, by Duke R. Highfield
- An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove on Expert Admissibility by Duke R. Highfield
- Hedonic Damages, by Duke R. Highfield
- South Carolina Court Sets Dangerous Precedent in Refusing to Strike Potentially Biased Juror by Duke R. Highfield
- Tenant’s Lack of Privacy Expectation in Common Area Stymies Suit Against Landlord
- South Carolina Supreme Court Rejects Restatement’s Negligent Entrustment
- South Carolina – New Case Addressing Limits on Expert Testimony in State Court, by Duke R. Highfield