When Tom Gressette sees a need, he likes to find a way to help. It is something he learned from his family growing up in Florence, South Carolina.
“My parents taught me the importance of treating people well in all aspects of life and the power of contributing to your community,” says Gressette, ’97 law. “That includes giving of yourself to make the world a better place.”
It’s an ethic that was reinforced by his law school professors at the University of South Carolina.
“Bob Bockman, Rob Wilcox, Alan Medlin and Jim Burkhard to name a few — they showed us what contributing to the greater good looked like by their example in service to the USC law community and to the state at large,” he says.
Now a partner in the Charleston firm of Walker Gressette & Linton LLC, Gressette helps not only his clients, but he also serves as president of the South Carolina Bar Foundation, where he is leading an effort to increase the impact of grants given to legal resource organizations.
“My work as a federal public defender afforded me invaluable courtroom experience while also showing me firsthand how daunting the justice system can be to defendants and their families,” Gressette says. “As I entered private practice, I promised myself I would do two things: represent all my clients to the best of my ability and devote time to being a solution for the types of problems I had seen working in the jails, prisons and courtrooms.
“So many of the programs funded by the S.C. Bar Foundation work to provide access to legal services designed to help people step out of their pasts and move beyond difficult circumstances.”
One such organization is Charleston Legal Access, which provides representation to people who make too much money to qualify for free services, but not enough money to be able to afford legal help.
The 9-year-old nonprofit charges its clients on a sliding scale based on their income, but also relies on outside funding, like that from the S.C. Bar Foundation.
“Our attorneys can help shift the balance of power in a case,” says Lana Kleiman, executive director of Charleston Legal Access. “Access to legal advice leads to clients making rational decisions instead of fear-based decisions.”
“As I entered private practice, I promised myself I would do two things: represent all my clients to the best of my ability and devote time to being a solution for the types of problems I had seen working in the jails, prisons and courtrooms."
It is one of dozens of organizations that receive funding under the S.C. Bar Foundation’s grant program, which has awarded more than $60 million since 1971 to help victims of domestic violence, homeless families, targets of fraud and the elderly among other groups.
Those grants are funded by interest earned on lawyers’ trust accounts and donations to the foundation. In recent years, higher interest rates have meant more funding for the foundation.
It is that “windfall” that Gressette hopes the foundation will use to create more impactful awards.
“During the recession years and after, the amount of interest that was available to use for grants was tight compared with the changes we've seen over the last three to four years,” Gressette says. “With that increase of interest rates and funds in the portfolio, we came up with this idea of special impact grants.”
The foundation board voted in February to create a special impact fund of $2 million and a committee that will establish rules for how organizations can apply for the new grants and what types of things would be funded in future years.
The goal is to fund one-time expenses for organizations — like new computer systems or software upgrades or other special projects — rather than recurring expenses like rent, utilities or employee salaries.
For 2025, the impact grant awardees were the Upstate Medical-Legal Partnership, which integrates legal services into health care settings; Charleston Legal Access, which will use the additional funding to study the feasibility of increasing its service offerings; and an exhibit for the state Supreme Court lobby on the history of the S.C. judicial system.
Part of the impact fund also will help organizations that saw federal and state funding canceled or withdrawn this year.
Overall, the S.C. Bar Foundation awarded $5.2 million in 2025 — the largest single-year grant funding in its history.
“The foundation’s vision is for every person in South Carolina to recognize and secure legal rights by supporting organizations that provide access to justice for people who are underserved by existing legal services,” Gressette says. “I am so grateful for the board’s efforts to help make that vision a reality this year and in future years through these new impact grants.”