Patrick Norris is a partner in the Charleston office of GRSM. His practice focuses primarily on professional liability defense, design/construction litigation and general liability/personal injury defense. Patrick also provides non-litigation support to his design professional and contractor clients, including contract drafting and review, navigation of subpoenas, and legal advice related to emerging industry issues.
Representative Experience
- Obtained summary judgment for a subcontractor client in a construction defect action just weeks before trial, on the grounds that the Plaintiff’s claims were time-barred by the 13-year statute of repose. Successfully argued that there was no admissible evidence of gross negligence in the record after four years of discovery. Consequently, the gross negligence exception to the statute of repose was deemed unavailable to the Plaintiff, despite the Plaintiff’s efforts to create a material issue of fact with a last-minute affidavit from its expert, who opined that the contractor had been grossly negligent.
- Obtained a critical dismissal of claims against the firm's client, a custom residential builder in South Carolina. (February 2024)
- 3 Chisolm Street Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Chisolm Street Partners, LLC, 2014-UP-128 (S.C. Ct. App. Mar. 26, 2014)
- Segars v. Ocean Estate Builders, et al. – Beaufort County, SC – Order Granting Summary Judgment (2013)
- Long v. Trident Real Estate, et al. – Dorchester County, SC – Order Granting Motion to Dismiss (2023)
- Obtained summary judgment for civil engineering firm
- Running Up That (Persimmon) Hill: Elevated Claims Handling Perspectives Through the Lens of South Carolina's Watershed Portrait Homes Decision – Claims & Litigation Management Alliance (“CLM”) – Construction Conference Panel — Huntington Beach, CA (2024)
- The Mediation Metaverse: Marvels in Claim Resolution! – Claims & Litigation Management Alliance(“CLM”) – Annual Conference Panel (2023)
- Dissecting, Evaluating and Resolving Construction Disasters – Claims & Litigation Management Alliance(“CLM”) – Annual Conference Panel (2022)
- Claims Against Design Professionals – NC/SC Joint Construction Law Conference – Speaker/Panel (2022)
- AIA Charleston A.R.E. Seminar on Contract Documents – Speaker (2014)
Admissions
- South Carolina
Education
- J.D., summa cum laude, Charleston School of Law, 2009
- B.S., cum laude, Clemson University, 1998
Honors
- Super Lawyers Rising Star®, 2016–2019
- “Legal Elite,” Charleston Business Magazine, 2018, 2019, 2022