South Carolina

Amber Fulmer: Welcome to the Direct Examination Podcast! I’m Amber Fulmer.

Joseph Bias: And I’m Joseph Bias. Amber, good to see you! How are you?

Amber Fulmer: Tired! Just finished putting the baby down, so let’s hope she stays asleep. (laughs)

Joseph Bias: Super mom and super co-host! Dane ran into a work emergency today, so he’ll be back for the next episode. But we have another illustrious guest with us today. Amber, tell us about her.

Amber Fulmer: Our guest today is Sue Berkowitz, Executive Director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center. Sue graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in History in 1980 and earned her J.D. from Western New England University School of Law in 1983. She served as a staff attorney with Palmetto Legal Services from 1983 to 1986 and joined SC Appleseed in September 1989.

Appleseed began as a subsidiary of South Carolina Legal Services and became an independent entity in 1996 after Congress restricted LSC-funded organizations. In 1998, it affiliated with the national Appleseed Foundation. SC Appleseed provides systemic advocacy for low-income communities, shapes public policy at the State House, educates the public, and pursues impact litigation when laws are unfair. Welcome, Sue!

Sue Berkowitz: Thank you for having me!

Joseph Bias: Sue, tell us in your own words what SC Appleseed does across South Carolina.

Sue Berkowitz: We are a non-profit public interest law firm. Our purpose is to ensure low-income South Carolinians have representation at the systemic level—just like any corporation or well-funded group would have. We lobby at the State House on policy impacting low-income communities, serve as an administrative watchdog over state agencies like DSS, DEW, and Medicaid, and bring impact litigation when systemic rights are violated.

Unlike traditional legal aid offices that handle individual 1-on-1 cases, we target problems that require systemic solutions. For instance, we brought a class-action lawsuit against DSS on behalf of foster children in South Carolina who were not receiving basic healthcare or constitutional protections. We litigated against DEW over unemployment administration, and during COVID-19, we filed litigation regarding health and safety conditions at the Spartanburg County Jail.

Amber Fulmer: You started your career providing direct representation at Palmetto Legal Services. What drove you to pivot toward systemic advocacy?

Sue Berkowitz: Doing 1-on-1 legal aid, I loved working with clients, but I kept seeing the same problems over and over again. Clients would come in because their food stamps were cut off, or they were trapped in predatory loans with 90% or 100% interest rates. I felt like I was putting a band-aid on a dam that kept bursting.

Early in my career, a client came to me because her stereo was seized under a “distress action”—an old statutory remedy where a landlord could seize property from a tenant’s home without due process to cover unpaid rent. Her brother owed rent, but they took her stereo. I realized there was a fundamental constitutional due process issue. We sued the state in federal court right after I passed the bar, and we got the distress statute declared unconstitutional. That showed me the power of attacking the underlying law rather than just fighting individual symptoms.

Amber Fulmer: Pre-pandemic, 1 in 4 children in South Carolina faced food insecurity, along with nearly 20% of adults. What specific trends and needs have you seen since COVID-19 hit?

Sue Berkowitz: COVID-19 amplified every existing vulnerability in South Carolina—poverty, lack of affordable housing, lack of Medicaid expansion, and inadequate safety nets. When schools closed, thousands of children lost access to free or reduced-price meals. Our team worked to ensure DSS secured approval for Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) benefits so families received food assistance at home.

On unemployment, the Department of Employment and Workforce was overwhelmed. People who lost jobs couldn’t get through on phone lines for days while facing immediate eviction or utility shutoffs. We created direct communication pipelines with agency officials to resolve blocked claims, provided trainings for attorneys handling housing and unemployment issues, and published comprehensive COVID-19 legal guides in both English and Spanish at scjustice.org.

Joseph Bias: What qualities do you look for when hiring an attorney for SC Appleseed?

Sue Berkowitz: First, practical subject-matter experience—whether in legal aid, housing, immigration, or criminal justice. Second, and most importantly, “fire in the belly.” The people who come to us have often been turned away everywhere else. They deserve attorneys who will fight for them with 150% dedication. You also need attorneys who can perform high-level policy analysis, see the bigger picture, and remain resilient when powerful interests get upset with our work.

Amber Fulmer: Does SC Appleseed participate in amicus curiae briefs for appellate cases?

Sue Berkowitz: Yes. We frequently file amicus briefs in significant state and federal cases. We filed amicus briefs during the Abbeville school funding litigation, on pending state housing issues, and in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court—such as Turner v. Rogers, which addressed the right to counsel in civil contempt proceedings for child support enforcement.

Joseph Bias: We end every episode with a war story. What is one of your favorite stories from your career?

Sue Berkowitz: Early in my career at legal aid, I took on a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to save an elderly client’s farm and home. I had never taken a bankruptcy course in law school. During the hearing before Judge J. Bratton Davis, the judge kept pressing me on an IRS income tax requirement that I didn’t recognize.

George Cuffin, who was the clerk of the bankruptcy court at the time, called a 15-minute recess. He pulled me aside and explained that there had been a known misprint in the printed tax code book I was referencing. He showed me the corrected provision, helped me get organized, and we went back in and saved the client’s home. It was a terrifying moment where I thought I might lose my license five minutes after getting it, but it taught me a lifelong lesson about humility, preparation, and the power of mentorship in the legal community.

Joseph Bias: Sue, thank you so much for joining us and for everything SC Appleseed does for South Carolina. You can learn more about their work at scjustice.org or follow them on Twitter @AppleSeedSC.

Amber Fulmer: Thank you, Sue! To our listeners, follow us on Twitter and Facebook @SCLawPod, follow Dane @SCCrimLawyer, Amber @RedJudicata, and Joseph @JosephPBias. Leave us a five-star review and we’ll see y’all next week!