Law Technology

Attorney Reese Joye Dies

A lion of the Charleston bar, Reese Joy of the Joye Law Firm, died on Sunday morning. I didn’t know Reese well, but he was very well respected for how hard he worked and how prepared he was for his trials. Geoffrey Waggoner, tells a remembrance of Reese from his ‘early days’ of practicing law.

Reese Joye was the first lawyer I interviewed with, 31 years ago, right out of the USC School of Law.

I had come by way of Duke University, but to everyone who knew me as I graduated from Law School, I was from New Jersey, 12 miles west of Manhattan, and when I let people know I thought Charleston would be a good place to live and raise a family, I was told I didn't have a chance.

Instead, they suggested, if you want to be a trial lawyer, look for work in North Charleston; and in North Charleston there was only one lawyer whose practice I wanted to join, and that was Reese Joye.

When I first interviewed with Reese, in 1977, he told me bluntly that I had no experience and wasn't worth much and, as if to prove it, offered me a yearly salary of $8000. I went elsewhere for a year, but then he came back to me and asked me if I would accept $12,000, and I jumped at the opportunity.

He never mentioned that I wasn't from Charleston and, at the time, had another outsider working with him, George Kefalos, from Pittsburgh. And not soon thereafter, another, from Florida, Elliott Barrow. Though we weren't from Charleston, Reese gave us our start at becoming trial lawyers here.
Eventually, with recent marriages, and young children, George, Elliot, and I could not keep up with Reese's seven-days-a-week-at-the-office pace, and struck out on our own. But even then, and despite the undeniable financial stresses that the sudden departure of 75% of his firm caused him, Reese touched me with his other side.

For Christmas, barely three months after our parting, he had delivered to my new office, complete with a red bow, an antique lamp which he had acquired, and which I had coveted, and which I have since considered one of my most prized possessions. It is a perfect symbol of the complex man who had disregarded our out-of-state origins, taught us the rewards of passion and hard work for our clients, driven us away with his inimitable work habits, suffered the embarrassment and financial strains of an exodus from his firm and, despite it all, took time and trouble to touch someone in a warm and most personal way.

Sadly, and though I have called on Reese for practice management advice since our paths diverged, it is his sudden passing that calls to mind the influence he had on my life, and on the lives of many others, when we began our careers as trial lawyers.

Thanks for taking the time to share, Geoff. This is a big loss for the legal community and the people of South Carolina. Our hearts and prayers go out to Reese’s wife, Jackie and his children, Mark and Todd.

Full post as published by South Carolina Trial Law Blog on July 25, 2008 (boomark / email).