Kara Bailey Hamilton is an associate attorney with the firm’s Commercial Real Estate Practice Group and practices primarily in its Columbia office.  Kara has a broad range of experience in complex acquisitions, dispositions, development, commercial lending, REO properties, loan document negotiation and workouts, including forbearance agreements and deeds in lieu of foreclosure, commercial leasing, utility easements and title insurance options.  She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Experimental Psychology at the University of South Carolina, where she was both a McKissick and Capstone Scholar and graduated summa cum laude.  Kara earned her Juris Doctor at the University of South Carolina School of Law where she was given the Cali Award for the highest grade in her real estate transactions classes.

Kara is also an adjunct professor, teaching the Commercial Real Estate Capstone at the University of South Carolina School of Law, and Chair of the South Carolina Bar Corporate, Banking & Securities Law Section.  She has been a featured speaker at the South Carolina Bar Convention and Real Estate Intensive Seminar.

Kara has been recognized by Columbia Business Monthly Magazine as one of the “Best and Brightest under 35,” and is a recipient of the South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Leadership in Law Award.  Outside of her practice, Kara is highly engaged in her community, including serving as Director of the Prisma Health Midlands Foundation Centers Board and the Junior Achievement Great South Carolina Young Professionals Auxiliary Board.  She volunteers with the South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers Division Special Olympics Committee and the United Way of the Midlands Women in Philanthropy.