Midlands lawyer, politician accused of sexual harassment has law license suspended
A Midlands lawyer and former Lexington County Council member has been temporarily suspended from the practice of law.
Billy Oswald’s long political career has included serving as South Carolina director for Gary Hart’s 1984 presidential campaign and unsuccessful runs in the Republican primaries for state House seats in 2016, 2018 and 2024. But more recently he was in the news after he settled a lawsuit from his former office manager, which accused him of fostering a toxic culture of sexism at his businesses.
The South Carolina Supreme Court granted an order for the interim suspension Friday. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the state body that regulates attorneys, asked the court to temporarily suspend Oswald’s law license due to unspecified “misconduct.”
The order, signed by Chief Justice John Kittredge, did not state why Oswald’s license was being suspended and made no reference to the lawsuit.
The Supreme Court’s Friday order cited a state law that allows the court to temporarily suspend a lawyer’s license “upon receipt of sufficient evidence demonstrating that a lawyer poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the public or to the administration of justice.”
Oswald, who once held positions on the Lexington County Board of Education, the South Carolina Health Planning Committee and the board of the Lexington Medical Center, will have a suspended license pending a final determination on the misconduct.
When reached by phone, Oswald said that he could not discuss anything and had “no comment.”
Over a roughly 40-year career, Oswald has run or was involved with a number of law firms and real estate companies, including Oswald & Burnside LLC, The Oswald Law Firm, LLC and Oswald Realty, Inc.
Oswald settled the lawsuit against him in March for $71,000 in back pay to his former employee, according to documents filed in federal court.
The lawsuit contained allegations of his conduct towards his office manager, who The State has not named because the lawsuit contains allegations of sexual harassment.
Among other claims, it accused Oswald, who is in his 70s, of groping an employee, exposing his genitals, calling female clients and workers “b-----s,” and performing “sexual acts” with prostitutes in the office conference room during work hours.
The lawsuit described Oswald as telling employees: “I am your king. I am your god.” When the employee asked if she would get a bonus from cases that she helped settle, Oswald refused, allegedly telling her, “you all make more than enough money. You just need to take care of me.”
The lawsuit also alleged that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oswald told his employees to file for unemployment insurance but said that they should continue to work from home. He also became “occupied with a scheme to make money” by applying for unemployment benefits and CARES Act funds for people. The lawsuit alleges that Oswald went as far as to create several new business entities for this venture and threaten employees who wanted to change their business duties with termination.
In a previous interview with The State, Oswald denied the allegations against him and wrongly claimed that the lawsuit had not been settled.
After that article ran, lawyers for the employee filed to enforce the settlement.
This story was originally published January 4, 2025 at 6:00 AM.