Steinberg Law Firm: A Legacy of Excellence

Irving Steinberg founded our law firm in 1927. He practiced law in the firm’s downtown office at 61 Broad Street for more than 50 years before passing away in 1980. He had polio as a child, but always a fighter, not even the use of crutches could slow him down. As one of Charleston’s first Jewish attorneys, he experienced discrimination first hand. When gentile folks shied away from hiring a Jewish lawyer, he decided he would represent those whom the other lawyers turned their backs on.

Some of those represented were members of the African American community, and Mr. Steinberg built a reputation for providing the same legal representation others took for granted in the civil and criminal courts. He also represented injured workers who were too often denied medical treatment, fired from their jobs and left destitute. Mr. Steinberg worked tirelessly drafting and lobbying to pass South Carolina’s Workers’ Compensation Act in 1936.

Over the decades that followed, Mr. Steinberg grew the firm by adding new partners to carry on the legacy, including Irvin Levkoff, Hugo Spitz and Charles Goldberg. He was an ambitious lawyer in the forefront during the 1950s and 1960s, helping to organize the African American churches register their congregations to vote, changing the political landscape of the city and county. Mr. Steinberg and his partners never stopped fighting for civil justice. They were founding members of the S.C. Association for Justice (formerly the S.C. Trial Lawyers Association) and Injured Workers’ Advocates.

The Steinberg Law Firm has continued to advocate for the rights of injured persons. While the founding partners have since retired, the firm has continued to grow with the addition of eight new partners: David Pearlman (1980), J. Kevin Holmes (1980), Tom White (1985), Malcolm Crosland (1987), Steven Goldberg (1993), Michael J. Jordan (2014), and Ben Akery (2016).

The firm’s lawyers continue the legacy of giving back to the community by serving such charities as the Lowcountry Food Bank, Tricounty Family Ministries, and Reading Partners. They have also received honors and recognition, such as being named Super Lawyers and the Best Lawyers in America by U.S. News & World Report and receiving the Gedney M. Howe, Jr. Award for Outstanding Public Service, the S.C. Leadership in Law Award, and being voted Best Workers’ Comp Firm in S.C., among many other distinctions.

We are proud to trace the firm’s roots back 95 years to Irving Steinberg who began it all with his indomitable will to serve all those in need neglected by others. We are proud to carry on his legacy of excellence.