Brian Barnwell

Biography

Brian Barnwell was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He graduated summa cum laude from Presbyterian College and earned his law degree magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he served as an Articles Editor for the South Carolina Law Review.

After law school, Brian spent 11 years at one of Columbia’s premier defense firms with a nationwide reach, where he developed a broad and sophisticated litigation practice. His work spanned complex business disputes, consumer financial services litigation, class actions, insurance coverage and bad faith claims, and high-stakes products liability cases. He has represented clients in courts across the majority of South Carolina’s 46 counties, as well as before the South Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the American Arbitration Association.

This extensive experience defending corporate and financial institutions gives Brian a strategic edge in his current work representing victims of fraudulent or misleading Indexed Universal Life (IUL) insurance sales. He understands how insurers and agents structure these products, how they attempt to avoid liability, and how to expose the hidden risks and misrepresentations at the heart of many failed IUL policies. At RP Legal LLC, Brian leads and supports litigation efforts across the country on behalf of retirees, professionals, and business owners who were falsely promised tax-free retirement income and risk-free growth through IUL strategies that ultimately collapsed.

In addition to his litigation practice, Brian has served on the South Carolina State Ethics Commission since 2014 and held the position of Chairman from 2017 to 2019. His commitment to integrity in public service reflects the same principles that guide his legal advocacy.

Brian lives on a farm in Eastover, South Carolina with his wife and two sons. He and his wife co-founded The Calvary, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds for cancer patients in the Midlands region of South Carolina.