Eugene “Gene” Matthews Shareholder Richardson, Plowden & Robinson, Columbia

Gene Matthews is a shareholder at Richardson Plowden in Columbia, with 26 years of practice. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995.

Before practicing law, Matthews served as an intelligence officer with the CIA and has served in the U.S. Navy Reserve since 1989, currently holding the rank of captain. He served on active duty during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and in Iraq during Operation New Dawn from 2010 to 2011.

Matthews joined Richardson Plowden in March 2004 as special counsel and was elected shareholder in December 2005. He heads the firm’s employment law practice group, concentrating in employment law, administrative and regulatory law, civil rights litigation and appellate litigation, and is certified by the South Carolina Supreme Court as a specialist in employment and labor law. He is a member of both the South Carolina and North Carolina bars and represents a broad range of state government agencies.

He said he expects “the biggest changes we’ll be faced with in employment law in the coming year is going to be regulation of AI in hiring, employment decisions, and workplace monitoring.”