By Dr. Dwain Pruitt ’95

At 13 years old, Joseph Bias ’06 received an ultimatum that changed his life.

“I was the kid who talked a lot in class. I had an eighth grade social studies teacher named John Smith. … He kind of pulled me aside and said, ‘Look, you have two options here: We can either put you in in-school suspension or you can do this mock trial program.’”

Bias chose mock trial. Then he chose Wofford because of the college’s reputation in the legal community.

At Wofford, Bias majored in humanities, combining his interests in English, history and philosophy. He participated in mock trial, served on the Judicial Commission and received the Heart of a Terrier Award.

Bias went on to graduate from the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law in 2010. He started its Judge J. Lyles Glenn Jr. and Terrell L. Glenn Sr. Mock Trial Competition in 2009 and served as its chief justice. He currently serves as an adjunct professor and is a 1L mentor. The student who best exemplifies the spirit of the mock trial bar receives the Joseph P. Bias Award.

Bias’ practice focuses on education law. Several areas of law intersect in education law, making the field complex and challenging … and ideal for Bias.

“When you’re a person who is interested in a lot of things and sometimes has a short attention span, it’s fun to have a job where you don’t know what’s going to happen next,” he says.

Bias became general counsel for Midlands Technical College in 2019 and founded the Joseph Bias Law Firm in 2024. Much of his practice involves Title IX, including investigations and serving as a hearing officer. He has received several recognitions, including being chosen as one of The State newspaper’s “20 Under 40” and receiving the South Carolina Bar Law Related Education Lawyer of the Year in 2018. In 2022, he received a Legal Elite award from Columbia Business Monthly. He was the top vote-getter in education. Bias calls this attention “flattering,” but he says he’s only “proud of the ones that relate to community work and the work that I do with kids.”

Bias makes time to coach mock trial at Richland Northeast High School every Tuesday evening. “I tell my students all the time that I think, at this point, I am a lawyer so that I can justify being able to coach mock trial,” he says.

Fun fact: If Bias hadn’t become an attorney, he might have pursued a career as an actor. He learned to read at 18 months, and his facility for memorizing scripts resulted in several roles, culminating in a role in Oprah Winfrey’s 1998 TV movie, “The Wedding.” Bias portrayed Halle Berry’s grandfather in a flashback sequence. Bias was so starstruck both times he met his “granddaughter” that he was speechless.