Kilgo retires from legal practice
Attorney Robert “Bobby” Kilgo, Jr. is closing his legal practice, ending a three-generation tradition of Kilgos practicing law in Darlington.
Photo by Samantha Lyles
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
When Robert “Bobby” Kilgo, Jr. closes his law office this summer, it will mark the end of an era in Darlington, closing the books on over 100 years of Kilgos continuously practicing law in our community.
This tradition began when Bobby’s grandfather, James Patrick Kilgo, graduated from Wofford College and came to Darlington from his birthplace of Wadesboro in 1908. He was admitted to the state bar in 1909. Mr. Kilgo practiced law with Judge E.C. Dennis from 1911 to 1920, but his professional life boasted varied vocations; he was a court stenographer, organized horse shows, edited the News and Press from 1908 until 1911, founded Wholesale Auto Auctions (which later became Clanton’s) and ran a Chevrolet dealership until his death in 1945.
The second generation of Kilgo Law, James Patrick’s son Robert Lawton Kilgo, attended the University of South Carolina School of Law after his service in World War II. He hung his shingle in Darlington on Exchange Street and practiced law with Edward C. Dennis, Jr. for a few years. In 1952, Kilgo Sr. was elected as 4th Circuit Solicitor and served in that office until 1965, when he retired into full-time private practice. He then partnered with Leroy Want until 1976 when Want was elected to the county bench.
Robert “Bobby” Lawton Kilgo Jr., joined his dad’s firm in 1975 after graduating from USC School of Law, and the two practiced together until James Patrick’s death in March of 1992 at the age of 74.
“He was known to be fearless in a courtroom, and he thoroughly enjoyed trial practice,” Bobby says of his dad, adding that James tried a big drug case just weeks before he took ill and passed away.
At one point, Kilgo wanted to follow in his father’s path and serve as a prosecutor, but lost the 4th Circuit Solicitor election in 1988. Instead, he turned his public service aspirations to the other side of the aisle and became a public defender in 1986, and continued in that role until retiring to private practice in 2009.
“I was in the courtroom one day, in the middle of a trial, and I felt his hand on my shoulder. And I heard him quietly say, “It’ll be okay.” And that was a rite of passage and freedom for me to go forward and not be on his coattails any longer.”
Throughout the years, he says he has greatly enjoyed the challenge of building cases and taking them to trial.
“I loved it. I love the courtroom,” Kilgo says, noting that as a trial lawyer, he shared his father’s understanding that there’s a fair amount of theater involved in trying a case before a jury. “A lawyer has to be an actor and has to put on a play. Theoretically, the judge may be the director, but whether you’re a prosecutor or a defender – or in a civil case, the plaintiff’s and defendant’s lawyers – you want to be the director because it’s going to come out in your favor with the jury.”
Kilgo says that he and his dad shared common interests outside the courtroom as well, such as an appreciation for history, musical theater, and comedy. In fact, he says that two of his biggest regrets include not being able to see “Les Miserables” with his father, and not being able to laugh together at a favorite film, the 1992 legal comedy “My Cousin Vinny.”
“It’s my absolute favorite lawyer movie and he didn’t get to know about it. And I know that he would have been rolling on the floor just like I did, making quotes as the movie goes along,” Kilgo says.
With such a long tradition of legal service to the local community, Kilgo says he doesn’t take his decision to retire lightly. The choice was spurred in part, he says, by the way the court system and legal profession have changed in recent years; as court business trends away from jury trials and toward plea bargains, there is an increasing reliance on automated filings and procedures – which isn’t very engaging for an old school trial lawyer.
“It’s less of a profession and it’s becoming a business,” he says.
Kilgo’s public service career will not end when his practice closes. He has served on Darlington County Council as the District 1 (Darlington) representative twice: from 1981 to 1989, and from 2012 to the present. He says he intends to continue on with County Council, but much of his free time will be spent traveling with wife Sue to favorite destinations like Amsterdam and the western United States. Kilgo also plans to pursue a degree in history.
