Richard Mark Gergel

Richard Mark Gergel (born August 14, 1954) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Early life and education

Gergel was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Melvin and Meri Gergel, who were both children of Jewish immigrants. Gergel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in 1975 and a Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law in 1979. Gergel's cousin was well-known industrial chemist Max Gergel, President/CEO of the Columbia Organic Chemical Company, or COCC.

Professional career

From 1979 until 1980, Gergel served as a law clerk for a law firm in Columbia, South Carolina, and he was a partner with the firm from 1981 until 1982. Beginning in 1983 and continuing until his nomination to the district court, he was the president and partner with his own law firm (most recently known as Gergel, Nickles and Solomon) in Columbia. He has specialized in personal injury law. In his questionnaire to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Gergel wrote that South Carolina Democratic Congressmen John M. Spratt, Jr. and Jim Clyburn both previously had recommended Gergel to Obama as a district court nominee, and that South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham also supported the nomination. Gergel had a hearing before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on April 16, 2010. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 5, 2010, and received commission on August 9, 2010.

Author Gergel is the author of Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) and, with Belinda Gergel, of In Pursuit of the Tree of Life: A History of the Early Jews of Columbia, South Carolina (1996).