CHARLESTON — Joe Rice, the powerhouse attorney and University of South Carolina benefactor who helped negotiate quite a few high-profile authorized settlements whereas main one of many nation’s largest private damage legislation corporations, died unexpectedly on Sept. 3, an in depth supply confirmed.
He was 72.
The trigger and different particulars weren’t instantly disclosed.
Rice was the business-savvy co-founder of Mount Pleasant-based Motley Rice, which specialised in complicated medical-related civil litigation, from asbestos publicity to addictive prescribed drugs.
The agency has secured large, far-reaching settlements towards automaker Volkswagen associated to its emissions-fraud scandal and towards BP for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 employees and spilled thousands and thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
While at predecessor agency Ness Motley, he was one of many lead negotiators throughout the desk from cigarette makers within the so-called Big Tobacco lawsuits within the late Nineties. The talks resulted in a $248 billion settlement.
More not too long ago, Rice was named co-lead counsel in a nationwide lawsuit towards opioid producers and distributors that alleged the businesses helped create an overdose epidemic. His agency additionally launched an unprecedented ongoing authorized battle on behalf of three,965 individuals who have been injured or misplaced family members within the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults.
Currently, Rice was concerned in hundreds of water-contamination lawsuits towards firms that made poisonous “forever chemicals” in a wide-ranging case that is nonetheless enjoying out in federal courtroom in downtown Charleston.
Rice was born in Winnsboro and attended highschool in Gastonia, N.C., the place he labored in textile mills, drove a forklift and bagged groceries at an area grocery store.
He was a 1976 graduate of USC and a longtime monetary supporter of his alma mater.
He additionally was a hard-core fan and casual chairman of the Gamecock soccer program, hardly ever lacking a house recreation. USC’s Rice Athletic Center opened in 2012.