Mr. Speights is a partner in Speights &
Runyan. He has represented Plaintiffs in complex civil litigation for over thirty years.
Since 1982, he has represented public and private building owners in asbestos property
damage ("PD") cases in more than thirty states and has tried and settled more
asbestos PD cases than any other lawyer in the country. His accomplishments include
service as lead trial counsel in the first asbestos PD case in the nation, Lexington
County School District Five v. United States Gypsum Co., C/A No. 82_2072_0 (D.S.C., filed
August 17, 1982) (tried 1984 and settled shortly before going to the jury for almost twice
the actual damage claim); the first asbestos PD verdict in the nation, City of Greenville
v. W. R. Grace & Co., 640 F.Supp. 559 (D.S.C. 1986), aff’d 827 F.2d 975 (4th Cir.
1987) ($8.4 million verdict for actual and punitive damages, reduced to $6.8 million); and
the first asbestos PD verdict on behalf of a commercial building owner, New
Hampshire_Vermont Health Service Corporation, d/b/a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New
Hampshire v. U.S. Mineral Products Company, 10 F.3d 805 (1st Cir. 1993)(judgment with
interest of $4,883,752.21). Mr. Speights also successfully argued the landmark federal
case establishing the most favorable statute of limitations standard for building owners
in asbestos PD cases, Montana_Dakota Utilities Co. v. W.R. Grace & Co., 14 F.3d 1274
(8th Cir. 1994), as well as the inapplicability of statutes of repose, Hebron Public
School District of Morton County v. United States Gypsum Co., 475 N.W.2d 120 (N.D. 1991)
and the immateriality of the architect’s knowledge, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
South Carolina v. W.R. Grace & Company, 781 F.Supp. 420 (D.S.C. 1991). He also has
obtained substantial sanctions awards against the asbestos defendants, including one in
excess of a million dollars. |
| For over twenty years, Mr.
Speights also has represented building owners in every major asbestos bankruptcy involving
significant PD claims. Mr. Speights served as lead trial counsel on behalf of all of the
asbestos PD claimants in America in the Johns_Manville bankruptcy, which resulted in a PD
fund of almost $400 million. Mr. Speights later served as Chair of the PD Committee in the
Celotex bankruptcy and as a member of the joint asbestos committee in the National Gypsum
bankruptcy; the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit subsequently
recognized that Mr. Speights "played a significant role in the successful negotiation
of a consensual plan, and that a large portion of the credit for achievement of the plan
was attributable to Speights because of his credibility and the experience in asbestos
related bankruptcy that he brought to the process," In Re: Celotex Corp., 227 F.3d
1336 (11th Cir. 2000). |
| Mr. Speights graduated from
Clemson University in 1967, where he served as Student Body President. From 1967 to 1970,
he served as an officer in the United States Navy. He graduated from the University of
South Carolina Law School in 1973, where he was a member of the Law Review. Prior to
commencing his private practice, he clerked for the Honorable William L. Rhodes, Jr.,
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge (later Supreme Court Justice). |
