Gerald D. Jowers Jr. - Columbia, SC

Overview

Mr. Jowers, a partner in the firm, represents patients harmed by medical malpractice, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. He is admitted to practice before all courts in the State of South Carolina, the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina (2002), and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (2003). He has been admitted to practice pro hac vice in numerous states throughout the country.

Mr. Jowers graduated with honors from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in 1998. Afterwards, he entered the University of South Carolina School of Law and graduated in 2001. During law school he earned academic recognition on the Dean’s List and a Cali Award in The Constitution. He was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in November 2001. Following law school he began a judicial clerkship with a South Carolina Circuit Court Judge.

In 2019 and 2021 Mr. Jowers was an invited speaker at the Annual Advanced Forum on Obstetric Malpractice Claims. This annual conference brings together medical professionals and leaders in both the plaintiff and defense sides of obstetric malpractice litigation.

In October of 2014, he obtained the largest verdict ever in Hall County, Georgia on behalf of a child who was brain damaged because of a mismanaged labor and an eight minute delay in getting him a breathing tube that he needed at delivery.

In 2005 Mr. Jowers was appointed to lead the discovery efforts relating to the Pfizer drug Provera in MDL 1507, in re Prempro Products Liability litigation. This consolidated litigation involved the claims of more than 12,000 women who developed breast cancer following the use of hormone therapy drugs. Over the next three years he coordinated the document review, the assembly of exhibits, the development of expert witnesses, and personally took the depositions of pharmaceutical executives and scientists involved in the development and marketing of Provera. His work contributed to successful verdicts and settlements in cases tried across the country.

In May of 2014 he obtained what is believed to be the first plaintiff's verdict in a medical malpractice case involving laser extraction of pacemaker/defibrillator lead wires. The case was tried in Spartanburg, South Carolina on behalf of the children of a 48 year old woman who died because the equipment and personnel needed to address a foreseeable major complication were not readily available.

In 2007 Mr. Jowers took on a greater role in the firm's medical malpractice group and began devoting a substantial portion of his time prosecuting the cases of those injured by serious medical malpractice. In February of 2009, he and partner Ken Suggs tried a case in York County, South Carolina on behalf of the parents of a child who died after living for four years with the consequences of medical malpractice. This case resulted in a substantial verdict against the hospital. The case was reported in numerous media outlets and featured in South Carolina Lawyers Weekly, a legal newspaper.

He has continued his work in pharmaceutical litigation, most recently serving as lead counsel for the State of South Carolina against Cephalon, Inc. After nearly four years of litigation this case ended with a favorable settlement for the State.