Contributed Debra Legg
Latest Articles:

Cofounder of Callison Tighe and Robinson law firm retires
Contributed by Debra Legg | August 21, 2025
In 1971, Michael W. Tighe and the late Preston Callison started the law firm that still bears their names. It started as a real estate firm and grew into a team of distinguished attorneys who today provide the people and businesses of Columbia with a wide range of legal representation and counseling. After 54 years of successful service, Tighe is... READ MORE >

Museum to host 31st annual SCMMS Toy Soldier Show
Contributed by Debra Legg | October 06, 2022
If you think a “toy soldier” is just one of those rubbery little green guys you bought from the dime store when you were a kid, you’ve got a lot to learn. And you can learn it Saturday, October 8, at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, 301 Gervais Street. The museum will host the South Carolina... READ MORE >

Robinson Gray moves into WestLawn, its new home in the BullStreet District
Contributed by Debra Legg | September 08, 2022
The future has arrived, which means a new beginning for Robinson Gray Stepp & Laffitte— and for Columbia. Robinson Gray recently moved to WestLawn, the BullStreet District’s newest office building and the first mass timber commercial building in Columbia. Featuring 79,000 sq. ft., WestLawn is the largest of its kind in South Carolina. Created in partnership with Hughes Development Corporation,... READ MORE >

REI opens new headquarters
Contributed by Debra Legg | October 14, 2021
REI Automation, which designs and builds custom industrial equipment, celebrated its 30th anniversary September 30, by cutting the ribbon on its new headquarters on Veterans Road in Columbia. REI Automation CEO Grant Phillips presided over the opening of the new facility. The guests in attendance toured both the new building, which will function as workspace for engineering and business operation,... READ MORE >

Callison Tighe marks 50th anniversary with gift to Tighe Scholarship Fund
Contributed by Debra Legg | June 10, 2021
Callison, Tighe and Robinson has given $2,500 to the Michael W. Tighe Endowed Scholarship Fund at the University of South Carolina Law School, in celebration of both the 50th anniversary of the firm’s founding and Mike Tighe’s 80th birthday. The firm created the fully endowed scholarship in 2016, upon its 45th anniversary, with an endowment of $50,000. The scholarship was... READ MORE >

New program puts people back to work delivering fresh produce
Contributed by Debra Legg | March 24, 2020
It’s getting hard to get the things we need. Workers are being laid off as the demand for produce has dropped. Farmers’ crops are spoiling in the fields because some of their largest customers have shut down. The COVID-19 crisis tears at the fundamentals of how our society works. What if there was a way to get the supply chain... READ MORE >

Free lecture to tell soldier’s view of the 1779 Siege of Savannah
Contributed by Debra Legg | January 16, 2020
What was it like to participate in the Siege of Savannah, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolutionary War and a disastrous failure for the Continental Army and its French allies? That’s what Erick Nason will endeavor to convey at noon Friday, January 31, at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. Nason, a modern day... READ MORE >

Relic Room lecture to address failure to “win hearts and minds” in Vietnam
Contributed by Debra Legg | June 20, 2019
America fought two wars in Vietnam. One was on the battlefield, where U.S. forces nearly always prevailed. The other was a struggle for the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people. There we failed. Scott Kaufman, chairman of the history department at Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C., will talk about the last of those efforts to win the political... READ MORE >

S.C. Confederate Relic Room’s oldest artifact is a 400-year-old Japanese sword
Contributed by Debra Legg | June 13, 2019
One day in the cinder-coated hell that was Iwo Jima in March 1945, Sgt. Nealy Adolph Sweat of Summerville, S.C., single-handedly killed five Japanese soldiers. The last one was an officer who attacked Sweat with a sword. And not just any sword. The katana–which GIs more typically referred to as a “samurai sword”— was a priceless heirloom, having been made... READ MORE >

Callison Tighe & Robinson gives $10,000
Contributed by Debra Legg | December 31, 2010
Callison Tighe & Robinson has contributed $10,000 to Harvest Hope Food Bank, marking the second year in a row the law firm has reached out during the holiday season to people in need. The donation will help hungry families in the 20 central South Carolina counties Harvest Hope serves. “South Carolina has the second highest unemployment rate in the country... READ MORE >