Yarborough Applegate co-founding partner David Yarborough was recently featured in South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys’ Association’s magazine The DefenseLine, where he reflected on opening Yarborough Applegate alongside long-time friend William Applegate nearly 15 years ago, some of the most seminal moments in the life of the firm, and the many lessons he’s learned along the way.
The story was in the magazine’s “Adversary Profile” section, which spotlights an attorney from across the courtroom in a Q&A format.“As a former defense attorney, I have the utmost respect for my colleagues and friends in the South Carolina defense bar,” Yarborough says. “In fact, almost 30 percent of our cases come as referrals from defense lawyers who we have previously litigated against or who know our firm by reputation.”
In the piece, Yarborough recalls the transformative impact of the firm’s first major jury verdict: in 2014, earning $35.9 million for a 24-year-old worker who was paralyzed when he was electrocuted while working at a Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) powerhouse in Montgomery County, Maryland.
In many ways, the odds were stacked against the case—the trial team had been told it was the most conservative county in all of Maryland and their client, an undocumented immigrant, spoke no English and had no family in the US. But he also had pressing healthcare needs stemming from the electrocution.
“Ultimately, we ended up getting a great recovery for that guy, enough to take care of him at home with his own private team of medical providers for the rest of his life,” Yarborough says. “That was the first big highlight for our firm and it allowed us to come back to Charleston with some serious momentum.”
For nearly 10 years, though the firm had a string of other seven- and eight-figure verdicts, the Hernandez jury verdict remained the firm’s largest. That is, until December 2023, when Yarborough Applegate successfully argued that Amazon is in fact liable for the actions of the Delivery Service Partners that the tech giant calls “independent contractors.” The jury’s verdict—a landmark $44.6 million—was no doubt influenced by the trial team’s persistent research and doggedness throughout the course of the case and willingness to pivot approaches based on what they learned.
To learn more about their approach to taking on Amazon and much more, give the full article a read here.
This month, join us as we commemorate some of our team’s incredible accomplishments in both their personal and professional lives.
Our attorneys will take the lead on educating our peers on what we’ve learned from handling dram shop cases through a series of continuing education opportunities.
As we savor the final days of 2021, we wanted to take a moment and revisit some of the year’s defining movements for our team here at Yarborough Applegate, and extend our deepest gratitude to all those who we’ve had the honor of working with along the way.
Our very own David Yarborough and Reynolds Blankenship, two of South Carolina’s well-known bad faith plaintiff lawyers, have written the playbook on the subject.
Just a few months into 2023, our team has already been on the ground at events around the state. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to.
South Carolina Association for Justice’s 2023 Annual Convention brought trial attorneys from across the state together for three days of legal seminars and professional networking on Hilton Head Island.