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Garland Pearson McWhirter, managing attorney of McWhirter, Bellinger & Associates, works primarily out of the Columbia office. Ms. McWhirter received her BA in English in 1970 and her MAT in English in 1974, both from the University of South Carolina. She taught from 1970 to 1974 at the Lexington Intermediate School where she chaired the English Department. She received her JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1977. She was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1977 and to the United States District Court, District of South Carolina in 1978. Ms. McWhirter served as an Assistant Public Defender for Richland County from 1977 to 1980 and was in-house counsel for the SC Department of Education from 1981 until 1989 when she joined McWhirter, Bellinger & Associates as managing attorney. She is a member of the South Carolina Bar Association, the Richland County Bar Association, the Association of South Carolina Claimant Attorney's for Workers' Compensation and the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Education Association.