Attorney Profile

Columbia Attorney: Robert M.P. Masella

Columbia attorney Robert Masella attended Winthrop College in 1985, where he was an All-American Soccer Player. He then went on to join the business world and he excelled in this field, becoming one of the top producers nationwide for a Fortune 100 Company. He attended the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1992 and focused on studying workers' compensation, substantive and procedural criminal law and personal injury. He continued to place his emphasis in these areas, gaining valuable litigation skills while protecting individuals who were injured in an accident or who had been charged for a crime.

While he was in law school he wrote and published The Reorganization of South Carolina Environmental Agencies. Temporary Operating Procedures For the Administrative Law Division. (1995) for the South Carolina Environmental Law Journal, of which he was a member. He was a research assistant for South Carolina's premier probate professional, Professor S. Alan Medlin. He also was the Student Bar President in 1994 and 1995 for the University of South Carolina Law School. He graduated from the school but passed the Georgia Bar Exam and became a member prior to doing so.

After graduation he then went on to pass the South Carolina Bar and become a member of it. From 1995 to 1996, he was a law clerk for the now Supreme Court of South Carolina Justice Kaye G. Hearn when she was working as a member of the South Carolina Court of Appeals. After this position he served at the Richland County Solicitor's Office where he gained immense prosecution experience handling misdemeanors and felonies. Two years later he started the Masella Law Firm, P.A. in 1998. The firm has continued to expand in this time and now has a second location found in Rock Hill.

Attorney Masella has also continued to grow his abilities in this field, including sitting as a Municipal Court Judge from 2000 to 2005 in Columbia. This opportunity gave him the chance to preside over various types of criminal cases, assessing evidence, issuing rulings and sentencing those who were guilty. He also gained experience in the initial stages of a case, handling preliminary hearings. Attorney Masella served as the Chairperson of the South Carolina Bar's Lawyer Referral Service, the South Carolina Bar's Publications Committee and the South Carolina Bar's Continuing Education Seminar Committee. He currently is a Member of the South Carolina Bar Association's CLA Executive Committee, along with serving as the investigative attorney in the South Carolina Supreme Court as the Office Disciplinary Counsel. Bob Masella will also be inducted into the Winthrop Athletics Hall of Fame!

Areas of Practice

• Civil Litigation
• Personal Injury
• Wrongful Death
• Brain and Spinal Injuries
• Bad Faith Insurance Claims
• Construction Litigation
• Criminal Defense
• Workers' Compensation
• Family Law
• Probate Litigation
• Will Contests

Bar Admissions

• Georgia
• South Carolina

Admitted to:

• South Carolina State Courts
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina
• U.S. Court of Appeals
• Fourth and Eleventh Circuits

Education

University of South Carolina School of Law (1995)

• Juris Doctorate

Winthrop College (1985)

• B.A. in History and Political Science

Valley Forge Military Academy (1979)