Jessica O’Neill Gooding

Jessica O’Neill Gooding grew up in Conway, South Carolina, a small town where high school football games were important community events and people could be counted on to help their neighbors. After high school, Jess attended University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. Jess graduated in 2010 with highest honors as a summa cum laude graduate and with an honors degree from the South Carolina honors college.

Jess then attended University of South Carolina School of Law and earned her Juris Doctorate with high honors, magna cum laude, in 2013. While in law school, Jess served as a Peer Mentor, a Law School Ambassador, and the Symposium Editor for the South Carolina Law Review. Jess was inducted into both of the School of Law’s prestigious honor societies, the Order of the Coif and the Order of the Wig and Robe.

Immediately following graduation, Jess joined a Columbia firm and began practicing with the Employment and Personal Injury Litigation teams. Jess had the opportunity to represent clients in state and federal courts, as well as before administrative agencies at the state and federal level. She served as a first chair trial attorney in personal injury cases even in those early years of practice. In 2016, Jess joined Goings Law Firm, where she has continued to build on her courtroom and trial experience, both through formal training and by representing clients in various types of trials. She has been recognized as an up-and-coming trial attorney by Columbia Business Monthly and Super Lawyers Magazines, among other accolades.

Jess is active in the community and the profession, and she has served on several committees in South Carolina Bar’s Young Lawyer Division. She stays connected to the law school by working closely with student organizations and serving as an attorney mentor to first year law students each year. Jess is also the Chair of the Membership Committee for the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association and has served on the Editorial Board for the Richland County Bar Newsletter.

Jess’s husband, Ben, is also an attorney. They have two children and two Labrador Retrievers, who keep them busy! When away from the office, Jess and Ben enjoy attending college football games, cooking, and entertaining friends. Whenever they can, the Goodings enjoy traveling to a family farm in Georgia — who doesn’t love a good tractor ride, after all?

Education

• University of South Carolina School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 2013
• University of South Carolina, South Carolina Honors College, B.S., summa cum laude, 2010

Honors

• Midlands Legal Elite Honoree, Columbia Business Monthly
• Rising Stars Honoree, Super Lawyers Magazine
• National Trial Lawyers Top 40 under 40
• University of South Carolina Order of the Wig and Robe
• University of South Carolina Order of the Coif
• South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association Scholar

Bar Admissions

• South Carolina
• District Court of South Carolina
• Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals

Community

• Richland County Bar Association
• South Carolina Association for Justice
• Junior League of Columbia
• Kappa Nu Kappa Alumna Group
• Trenholm Road United Methodist Church