Erin Bailey Installed as President of the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Georgetown trial lawyer takes the helm of the state's 600-member defense bar after three years in SCACDL leadership.

GEORGETOWN, S.C. (November 2, 2026) Attorney Erin Bailey, founder of Erin Bailey Law, was installed as President of the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (SCACDL) on Friday, October 30. She will lead the statewide organization for the year ahead.

SCACDL is the voice of criminal defense in South Carolina. Its more than 600 members, private defense lawyers and public defenders alike, are united around a single mission, protecting the liberty of South Carolinians by ensuring justice and due process for every person accused of a crime.

Bailey's path to the presidency ran through every rung of the organization. Her peers elected her to the SCACDL Board of Directors in 2023 to represent the 15th Judicial Circuit, which covers Georgetown and Horry counties. She was elected Vice President for 2025 and served as President-Elect through 2026.

"This is an organization of people who do hard work that is not always popular, and who do it because somebody has to stand between the government and the accused," Bailey said. "I've spent three years learning how it runs from the inside. Now I get a year to help it run better. I don't take that lightly, and I don't do anything halfway."

Founded in 1992 by a group of 40 defense lawyers led by Reese I. Joye, SCACDL has grown into a statewide network built on three pillars. It provides continuing legal education for the defense bar, including the R. Scott Joye Trial College, where Bailey has taught. It advocates at the Statehouse when proposed legislation threatens constitutional rights. And it gives defense lawyers across the state a community, so that, in the organization's words, no defense lawyer stands alone.

The presidency arrives as Erin Bailey Law closes out its tenth year. In 2016, Bailey left a seven-year career as a Georgetown prosecutor to open a firm in a county most lawyers passed over for Charleston or Myrtle Beach. She built it, as she put it on the firm's anniversary, brick by brick. One client, one case and one community connection at a time. She brings the same approach to SCACDL.

"When I started my firm, I knew I was laying a foundation and that I wouldn't see results overnight. That's how I'm thinking about this year," Bailey said. "My priorities are practical. Make our committees the engine of the organization so the work gets done between meetings, not just at them. Bring members who aren't on the board into that work, because that's where our next leaders come from. And make sure the lawyer paying dues in Conway or Walterboro knows everything this organization does on their behalf, from the Statehouse to the document bank." 

Mentorship has been a constant through Bailey's SCACDL service, with particular attention to women building careers in criminal defense.

"I had people who showed me how to do this job well and reminded me why it matters," Bailey said. "Making sure the next lawyer has that, especially the next woman, is part of the assignment."

A trial lawyer with more than 30 cases tried to verdict, Bailey holds Martindale-Hubbell's AV Preeminent rating and has been named to the Super Lawyers list and the National Trial Lawyers' Top 100 Criminal Defense Lawyers in South Carolina. In 2026, Georgetown readers voted her Best Criminal Defense Attorney and Best DUI Attorney in the firm's third consecutive year of Readers' Choice honors.

Erin Bailey Law represents clients in criminal defense and personal injury matters across Georgetown, Horry and Charleston counties. If you or someone you love is facing a charge, it's worth a conversation. Learn more about Erin Bailey and her practice at erinbaileylaw.com.