George Barry Cauthen has been selected to receive the 2018 Bankruptcy Inn Alliance Distinguished Service Award by the American Inns of Court. The award will be presented in San Antonio, Texas, during the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in October.

Cauthen is a partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in Columbia, South Carolina, where he specializes in creditor bankruptcy law. He is a Certified Specialist in Bankruptcy Law by the Supreme Court of South Carolina. He has represented creditors in bankruptcy and has appeared before the courts of more than a dozen states. Cauthen has also served as a bankruptcy consultant to the courts of New York, Puerto Rico, the Slovak Republic, the Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Armenia, and Bulgaria.

The South Carolina Bar Foundation honored Cauthen with its DuRant Distinguished Public Service Award in 2016. He also received the J. Bratton Davis Professionalism Award from the South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association and an award from the Turnaround Management Association for Non-Profit Company Transaction of the Year.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree, Cauthen served in the U.S. Navy as a deck, gunnery and legal officer. He earned his JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1976 and served as a clerk to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of South Carolina, from 1982 to 1989. Cauthen returned to the University of South Carolina to earn an MPA in 1984.

The Bankruptcy Inn Alliance Distinguished Service Award was developed as a way to recognize ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession, the rule of law, and the demonstration of personal ethics and integrity as expressed in the professional creed of the American Inns of Court, and specifically dedicated to a judge or attorney who has practiced in the field of bankruptcy law.