South Carolina

Amber Fulmer: Welcome back to the Direct Examination Podcast. My name is Amber Fulmer.

Dane Phillips: I’m Dane Phillips, and we’re one co-host short tonight.

Amber Fulmer: And we don’t know where he is! (laughs) He’s lost!

Dane Phillips: I think the text we got was, “I’ve been in three states, I may call in,” or “I’m calling in,” and then it turned into, “I’m out. I’m not calling in.”

Amber Fulmer: Right. Are you going to give the BOLO description?

Dane Phillips: Exactly. Be on the lookout for his… I believe it was a Chevy. (laughs) Joseph is about 5’7″, he’s always smiling, short cropped hair, may have on a sweater vest depending on where he is. I don’t know the climate of what state he’s in. So if you see Joseph, please feel free to send us an email or send us a Twitter sighting…

Amber Fulmer: (laughs) And let us know ’cause we have no idea where he is!

Dane Phillips: Before this turns into the Unsolved Mysteries podcast, please send us the whereabouts of Joseph Biagio.

Amber Fulmer: Exactly. We don’t want your name on a milk carton. If somebody has him, do we negotiate with terrorists?

Dane Phillips: No, we don’t.

Amber Fulmer: We don’t make enough money, Joseph, I’m sorry. I’m confident on your skills to survive by yourself.

Dane Phillips: He’ll be all right.

Amber Fulmer: Yeah, he’ll be fine.

Dane Phillips: Well, our guest today is Stacy Thompson of Bluestein Attorneys. She graduated from a dual degree program, receiving her Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law and a Master of International Business Studies degree on the Portuguese track from the Darla Moore School of Business. Very educated.

Amber Fulmer: Very educated. She’s easily the smartest person in this room.

Stacy Thompson: No, no, no.

Dane Phillips: Beyond. She joined Bluestein & Nichols in 2000, which is now referred to as Bluestein Attorneys, doing business as, but she is a named partner in that firm of Bluestein, Thompson & Sullivan. She became a named partner in 2007 and she practices exclusively in the area of Social Security Disability and handles cases statewide. She is a road warrior.

Stacy Thompson: I get the high mileage discount on my car every year, so yeah, it’s—I burn up the roads pretty much all over.

Dane Phillips: Approximately how many miles did you do on the road last year?

Stacy Thompson: Oh, I don’t even know, honestly. I’ve had my car for three years and it’s got over 115,000 miles, so I mean it’s a decent amount, but it’s all local, it’s all in the state.

Dane Phillips: Rocking and rolling. So she is a sustaining member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR). I mean, that is the epitome if you do Social Security Disability work.

Stacy Thompson: That is the go-to organization, definitely.

Dane Phillips: And you were a board member?

Stacy Thompson: I was. I ruffled some feathers on that board. I made them go electronic in their materials for the conference, and you would have thought that I was asking them to disband the whole organization entirely. They were not happy with me at all.

Dane Phillips: Did they do it?

Stacy Thompson: They did! Two years later. Saved them a whole bunch of money too. But NOSSCR’s a great organization.

Dane Phillips: Well, in addition to being a Leadership Academy graduate from the South Carolina Bar, you are a published author!

Stacy Thompson: You know, I hate to even call it a book because I feel like a book needs to be hardbound and have some gravitas to it. Mine is more of a manual, more of a how-to. I wrote it with the idea being that any lawyer in South Carolina could pick this thing up and know how to do a Social Security case. Hopefully by the time they finish reading it, they realize they don’t want to do it and then they’ll just refer the case to me. So, yeah, it works.

Dane Phillips: Well, in short, before we get to it, you are an avid Gamecock fan, volunteer, world traveler, proud mother of several rescue pets…

Stacy Thompson: A lot of fur babies!

Dane Phillips: All right. And you just started finally listening to this podcast.

Stacy Thompson: I did, and I’ve enjoyed it.

Dane Phillips: Well, let’s get to it.

Stacy Thompson: Thanks for having me on, I appreciate it.

Amber Fulmer: Well, thank you for being here!

Dane Phillips: Why Social Security Disability? That would be most people’s first question.

Stacy Thompson: When I was in law school, I had no lawyers in my family. I worked as a runner in a law firm when I was in college and used to bug the paralegals for work. One encouraged me to go get a paralegal degree first to see if I really wanted to be a lawyer. So I went and got a paralegal degree… Got my first job up in Anderson, SC, and the attorney I worked for did Social Security Disability. I had a caseload of about 300 files and I just enjoyed the work. I enjoyed talking to the clients and being involved in every aspect of the case. About two weeks into that job, I decided I’m going to law school. Fast forward to finishing law school and business school, I started with Bluestein & Nichols. Marty had a practice in Social Security and workers’ comp, and she handed off her Social Security cases to me. Over time, it grew to where I routinely handle anywhere from 350 to 500 cases at a time.

Amber Fulmer: 300 to 500 cases in domestic law would probably put me in the ground.

Stacy Thompson: I honestly could not do it without the staff that I have. Paralegals are absolutely the vital cog in all of that. What really keeps me in it is the opportunity to really impact somebody’s life. My folks are not working, they’re in pain, they can’t support their families, so it’s a very difficult situation for them to be in.

Dane Phillips: If you had to boil down the three most stressful practice areas, it would be Social Security Disability, Domestic, and Criminal.

Stacy Thompson: There’s a lot of stress involved. When I take a client in, I never take them in over the phone; I need to meet them face-to-face. I can usually tell within 5 or 10 minutes whether this is a case I’m going to accept or not. We call it the “Spidey sense” in my firm. The hearing before the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) is where we present our case through the client’s testimony.

Dane Phillips: What is the definition and burden of disability?

Stacy Thompson: The definition of disability under Social Security is an inability to engage in any type of substantial gainful activity due to a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that has lasted or could be expected to last 12 months or longer. It’s a 5-step process:

1. Are they working? If they are working, they are not disabled.

2. Do they have a medically determinable impairment?

3. Does it meet or equal a Listing?

4. Can they return to past work?

5. Can they adjust to other work considering age, education, and skills?

Dane Phillips: Let’s talk about travel and hiking. You’ve been on all seven continents.

Stacy Thompson: Touched all seven, yep! The hiking started about seven years ago when my mother turned 65 and decided she wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. She summited, and hearing her experience made me want to join her on future trips. We started with Machu Picchu, then did Everest Base Camp (Kala Patthar at 18,500 ft) on an 11-day trek. We’ve also done coast-to-coast hikes in England and Ireland. It’s an amazing technology reset to completely check out and be away from everything.

Amber Fulmer: A good hard technology reset.

Dane Phillips: And your Gamecock passion?

Stacy Thompson: I played volleyball at USC as a walk-on in 1989. Our family moved to Columbia when I was six and we’ve always supported South Carolina teams. Now, 30 years later, my niece is playing for Dawn Staley’s basketball team at USC! We’ve traveled to Omaha for the College World Series and Final Fours in Phoenix and Dallas to support the Gamecocks.

Dane Phillips: What is your top piece of advice for students taking the Bar Exam?

Stacy Thompson: Disconnect. Starting the Friday before the exam, stop studying. Go for walks, go to movies, spend time with family. If you don’t know it by then, you’re not going to know it. Give yourself time off after the exam to decompress and recharge.

Amber Fulmer: Thank you for being here! Remember everyone, you can follow us on social media @SCLawPod, @JosephPBBS, @SCCrimLawyer, and @ResJudicata. Follow, like, share, and leave us a 5-star review!