Carmen V. Ganjehsani rejoined Richardson Plowden as Special Counsel in the Columbia office in 2015. She focuses her practice on appellate law.

Mrs. Ganjehsani began her legal career working for Nelson Mullins as an associate attorney in Atlanta. She previously worked for Richardson Plowden practicing general tort and business litigation with an emphasis on civil appellate litigation from 2004 to 2007.

Her additional experience includes:

• As an Appellate Defender for the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, Division of Appellate Defense, Mrs. Ganjehsani researched, drafted, and filed briefs in over one hundred direct and post-conviction relief criminal defense appeals in the South Carolina Supreme Court, the South Carolina Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of indigent criminal defendants
• Also as an Appellate Defender, she has presented oral arguments in sixteen criminal defense appeals before the South Carolina Supreme Court and the South Carolina Court of Appeals
• Handling all aspects of appeals at an appeals and trial support firm, including briefing and oral arguments, in the South Carolina Supreme Court, the South Carolina Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in cases involving complex business and contractual disputes, non-competition agreements, personal injury, products liability, insurance coverage, construction defects, real property, and domestic relations

 Publications and Speaking Engagements

• Circumventing the Fourth Amendment via the Special Needs Doctrine to Prosecute Pregnant Drug Users: Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 51 S.C. L. Rev. 671 (Spring 2000)
• Speaker, Public Defense 101: Fundamentals of the Profession: Substantive Law Overview: Search and Seizure, November 25, 2014

Representative Cases

State v. Hewins, 409 S.C. 93, 760 S.E.2d 814 (2014) (reversal of defendant’s drug possession conviction where evidence was discovered during unlawful search in violation of the Fourth Amendment)

Rhett v. Gray, 401 S.C. 478, 736 S.E.2d 873 (Ct. App. 2012) (reversal of master-in-equity’s ruling that landowners had abandoned 30-foot easement as a result of property swap with neighboring landowners)

D.R. Horton, Inc. v. Westcott Land Co., LLC, 398 S.C. 528, 730 S.E.2d 340 (Ct. App. 2012), aff’d, 410 S.C. 319, 764 S.E.2d 701 (2014) (in real estate transaction dispute, obtained affirmance of trial court’s grant of summary judgment to purchaser on developer’s counterclaims for slander of title, unfair trade practices, abuse of process, malicious prosecution, breach of contract accompanied by a fraudulent act, and tortious interference with prospective contractual relations)

Anthony H. v. Matthew G., 397 S.C. 447, 725 S.E.2d 132 (Ct. App. 2012) (reversal of family court’s termination of biological father’s parental rights where family court lacked jurisdiction under the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act  to terminate father’s parental rights and grant stepfather’s petition to adopt the child)

Pee Dee Land Company, LLC v. Florence County, (S.C. Sup. Ct. December 19, 2011) (Obtained a writ of mandamus in the original jurisdiction of the South Carolina Supreme Court to compel county treasurer and auditor to accept payment of taxpayer’s property taxes at the discounted statutory rate)

McDill v. Mark’s Auto Sales, Inc., 367 S.C. 486, 626 S.E.2d 52 (Ct. App. 2006) (affirmance of defense verdict in automobile collision case where plaintiff failed to establish that trooper qualified as an expert in accident reconstruction)