Brian is the managing member of the Small Business Law Firm of Brian Payne, LLC – a law firm dedicated to the legal needs of South Carolina businesses with up to 100 employees. He has practiced business law for 25 years and counting. His areas of practice include business start-ups, corporate law, limited liability company law, business sales and acquisitions, contract law, franchise law, asset protection, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, covenants not to compete, and nonprofit law.
Much of Brian’s work involves positioning development stage businesses for further growth. In addition to his law practice, Brian was a counselor for the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), Midlands (Columbia) Chapter, was a past legal advisor to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Executive Board (Columbia, Charleston), and was chairperson of the Advisory Board for the Frank L. Roddey Small Business Development Center of South Carolina, a consortium of 4 universities with South Carolina offices in Greenville, Clemson, Greenwood, Duncan, Orangeburg, Walterboro, Winthrop, Rock Hill, Myrtle Beach, Florence, Aiken, Beaufort, Charleston, Columbia, Hilton Head, Lexington, Newberry, and Sumter.
Some of his past speaking engagements include:
- Choosing the Right Business Entity as sponsored by the Greenville Area Small Business Development Center (October 2005).
- Building and Protecting Business Value: What Every South Carolina Business Needs to Know about Trademark, Copyright, Covenant not to Compete, and Trade Secret Laws, as co-sponsored by the Frank L. Roddey Small Business Development Center and the Small Business Law Firm of Payne & Associates, LLC (July 2005).
- Legal Compliance and Risk of Liability for the Visually Impaired Business Owner,as sponsored by the South Carolina Commission for the Blind (November 2004).
Brian obtained his Jurisprudence Doctorate from the University of South Carolina, School of Law in 1998. He completed his Master’s Degree coursework in philosophy at Villanova University in 1995 and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree focusing on the humanities and philosophy of science from the University of Minnesota in 1992. Brian has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, including the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, China, Japan, and Vietnam. He previously lived in Ekaterinburg, Russia, where he taught business and philosophy courses at the Humanitarian University, the first private liberal arts university in Russia. Brian also previously lived in Shenzhen, China, where he worked for the largest privately owned company in China, Huawei Technologies, as well as for Ping An Securities. He also taught courses at the University of Economic and Finance and in a Master Degree program at the University of Technology in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Brian greatly enjoys spending time with his wife and son.