Long motivated by a desire to see justice served through proper application of the law, Daniel F. “Frank” Blanchard, III is actively involved in civil trial work with emphasis in employment, business litigation, and probate, estate, and trust cases.
Frank attended Greenville’s Furman University, where he was inducted into the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society and received the Furman Scholar and Kennedy Foundation Scholarships. During his subsequent studies at the University of South Carolina School of Law, he was named to the Order of the Coif, the Order of the Wig and Robe, and the John Belton O’Neall Inn of Court. He also earned the American Jurisprudence Award for highest class average in Evidence. In addition, Frank served as Associate Editor-in-Chief of the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Probate & Trust Journal and received the Journal’s Outstanding Service Award.
Frank has published numerous articles in several legal periodicals, bar publications, and law reviews involving unfair trade practices, interference with contractual and business relations, attorney’s fees in judicial proceedings involving trusts and estates, rights under multiple-party accounts, elder law, Rule 30(b)(6) depositions, and employment and workplace legal matters and delivered lectures on trust and probate issues, attorney’s fees in judicial proceedings involving trusts and estates, employment law, interference with contracts and business relations, workplace violence issues, the South Carolina “Lemon Law,” motor vehicle warranties, legal drafting, and legal aspects of residential apartment management. He maintains the highest professional rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.
Experience
- Represented an executive level employee in a breach of contract action against his former employer. The primary issue involved whether the employer had complied with the former executive’s severance compensation package.
- Represented an executive level employee in negotiating and drafting a severance agreement and compensation package following her separation from employment with the company.
- Represented limited liability company in negotiating and drafting a buyout agreement with the estate of the company’s deceased member.
- Represented trust beneficiaries in a trustee removal action against the trustee of the trust under South Carolina’s version of the Uniform Probate Code’s “no fault” trustee removal provision.
- Represented a trustee in an action filed by a disappointed trust beneficiary who sought to defeat the settlor’s amendments to the trust.
- Represented state agency in defending against a nonprofit organization’s lawsuit that sought to prevent the agency from turning an aged submarine into a coastal reef.
- Represented personal representative of an estate in recovering the proceeds of a bank account jointly held by the decedent which the other account holder had withdrawn without authorization shortly before the decedent’s death.
- Represented a provider of restaurant equipment and supplies in a breach of contract action against a supplier that failed to deliver a shipment of product as promised under the contract.
- Represented a personal representative and beneficiary of an estate in defending against an action seeking to invalidate the decedent’s last will and testament.
- Represented the decedent’s intestate heirs in a legal challenge to a last will and testament allegedly executed by the decedent shortly before her death.
- Represented a real estate developer in settling a breach of contract lawsuit against its joint venture partner based on claim that partner tried to secretly sell the partnership property and assets to a third party, while wrongfully excluding our client.
- Represented clients in probate litigation involving who was entitled to receive the decedent’s collection of valuable German artwork, sculptures, and other tangible personal property which had belonged to the decedent’s family from the early to mid-1900s. The Probate Court ruled that our clients were to receive the personal property by virtue of an informal “separate writing” which the decedent had created on his computer shortly before his death and which he referenced in his will.
Publications & Speaking Engagements
- Feature: Conflict Resolution: Stakes are Ever High for Noted Charleston Estate, Trust Attorney, Primerus Paradigm Fall 2023
- Recovering Attorney’s Fees in Trust Litigation—From the Trust or Preferably the Other Guy, 26 th Annual Charleston County Probate Court Seminar (January 27, 2022).
- Attorney’s Fees in Judicial Proceedings Involving Trusts, Estates and Protected Persons: When is an Award Just and Equitable?, 2021 South Carolina Probate Bench Bar Seminar (September 3, 2021).
- Attorney’s Fees in Trust Litigation, Journal of National College of Probate Judges (Fall 2021).
- “Attorney’s Fees in Judicial Proceedings Involving Trusts, Estates and Protected Persons: When is an Award Just and Equitable?,” 72 South Carolina Law Review 145 (2020).
- Emerging Litigation Issues Every Elder Law Attorney Should Know, South Carolina Estate Planning Lawyers 2019 Chapter Retreat (September 20, 2019).
- South Carolina Damages, Interference with Contractual and Business Relations (S.C. Bar 2 nd ed. 2009 and Supp. 2017).
- Continued Uncertainty After Lissau v. Southern Food Service, Inc.,” 13 South Carolina Lawyer 36 (Nov./Dec. 2001).
- The Faragher-Ellerth Affirmative Defense as Implied Waiver of Privileges: Is the Defense a Shield or Double-Edged Sword?, 14 South Carolina Lawyer 38 (May 2003).
- South Carolina Evidence Rule 703: A Backdoor Exception to the Hearsay Rule?, 13 South Carolina Lawyer 14 (May/June 2002).
- Controlling Person Liability for Motor Vehicle Dealer Violations of the South Carolina Motor Vehicle Unfair Trade Practices Act: A Proposal for Reform, 47 South Carolina Law Review 349 (1996) (co-authored with Susan C. Rosen).
- 11th Annual Hiring & Terminating – The Ins and Outs of Employment Law Seminar, February 2015.
Awards & Honors
- AV Preeminent® rating, Martindale-Hubbell
- Selected to the South Carolina Super Lawyers list, 2020-2024 (Estate and Trust Litigation) and 2019 (General Litigation)
- Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, 2015-2025* (Commercial Litigation, Employment Law – Individuals, and Litigation – Trusts and Estates)
- Selected as Lawyer of the Year, The Best Lawyers in America®
- Litigation – Trusts and Estates, 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” in Charleston, S.C.
- Employment Law – Individuals, 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” in Charleston, S.C.
- Litigation – Trusts and Estates, 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” in Charleston, S.C.
- Employment Law – Individuals, 2020 “Lawyer of the Year” in Charleston, S.C.
- Employment Law – Individuals, 2018 “Lawyer of the Year” in Charleston, S.C.
- Litigation – Trusts and Estates, 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” in Charleston, S.C.
Involvement
- Fellow of the American Bar Foundation
- Former Member, House of Delegates, Ninth Circuit Delegate
- Charleston County Bar Association
- South Carolina Bar
- American Bar Association
Community Involvement
- Den Leader, Cub Scouts
- Youth Basketball, T-Ball, and Soccer Coach, Town of Mt. Pleasant Recreation Department
- Youth Soccer Coach, City of Charleston Recreation Department
- Charleston Library Society
- South Carolina Historical Society
- Furman Alumni Club
- Carefree Boating Club
- Volunteer, American Lung Association
