J. Edward Bell III
Founder and Senior Partner | Bell Legal Group
J. Edward Bell III is a medical malpractice, personal injury and product liability trial lawyer and founder and senior partner of Bell Legal Group in Georgetown, South Carolina. Admitted in South Carolina; J.D., University of South Carolina School of Law (1978).
Meet J. Edward
J. Edward Bell III, known as Ed Bell, is the founder and senior partner of Bell Legal Group in Georgetown, South Carolina. His practice covers medical malpractice, personal injury, automobile safety and defects, product liability, environmental law, police misconduct and prison abuse.
Bell founded the firm more than 40 years ago and has tried more than 400 cases. The firm’s profile says he was involved in the early work of the Arvada Jury Project, which studied the effect of trial lawyers and jury attitudes, and that he set up a research center at the firm’s Georgetown headquarters where engineers, researchers and support staff follow cases from start to finish.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Wofford College in 1975 and a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1978. He is admitted to the South Carolina Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for South Carolina, the Fourth Circuit and Federal Circuit courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bell has been a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates since 2017, served as president of the Georgetown County Bar in 2021 and 2022, and is president and chairman of the board of the Charleston School of Law. The National Trial Lawyers has named him a top 10 environmental trial lawyer since 2020.
Experience and Expertise
Qualifications
Timeline
- Wofford College, B.A. (1975)
- University of South Carolina, J.D. (1978)
- Admitted to the South Carolina Supreme Court
- Admitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina
- Admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- Admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court
Practice Areas
- American Bar Association
- American Association for Justice
- Federal Bar Association
- South Carolina Association for Justice (Former Board Member)
- South Carolina Bar Association
- Inner Circle of Advocates (Member, 2017 to present)
- Georgetown County Bar (President, 2021 and 2022)
- Boy Scouts of America Coastal Carolina Council (Executive Board Member)
- Rotary (Member)
- The Class Action Trial Lawyers (Member, 2012)
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating (2013-2021)
- The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 (2012-2017, 2021, 2022)
- Top 10 Environmental Trial Lawyer, The National Trial Lawyers (2020 to present)
- Best Lawyers in America (2013, 2016, 2017)
- Top Lawyers of South Carolina, Columbia Living (2012, 2015, 2016, 2020)
- Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina Governor (2021)
- Top 100 Trial Attorneys, American Trial Lawyers Association (2007, 2019, 2020, 2021)
- Leadership in Law Award, SC Lawyers Weekly (2010)
- Nation's Top One Percent, National Association of Distinguished Counsel (2015, 2016)
- America's Top 100 High Stakes Litigators and Personal Injury Attorneys (2019-2022)
Print is Alive
Trial Lawyer's Journal sets a new standard for law journal publications. With limited ads and one-of-a-kind content, it was created to celebrate wins both in and outside the courtroom.