After attending Washington and Lee University in Virginia, serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and earning his law degree from the University of South Carolina, Svalina had opportunities to leave the Lowcountry but elected to stay put and join his father, Sam, in the family practice in Beaufort. The elder Svalina passed away in 2013, but Sammy continues to practice through the Svalina Law Firm, using the skills his father taught him – and a few tricks he has picked up along the way – to serve clients throughout Beaufort, Jasper, Colleton and Hampton countines.

“I learned the value of credibility and how to get the true facts across to a jury through my dad,” Svalina said. “How important it is to deal with facts and be truthful. That’s what people come to hear in cases.” Svalina is board certified through the National Board of Trial Advocacy – one of 37 attorneys in South Carolina who can make that claim, and the only one in Beaufort County – which is another fact that separates him from the big-talking attorneys on your TV.

“We’ve had some great lawyers that have retired in Beaufort and in Charleston that I’ve gone against,” Svalina said. “When you see these lawyers that are this good, you better be good or you’re going to get your butt kicked all the time. Preparation is the key. And when you think you’re prepared, you need to prepare more.” Despite a comfortable upbringing – the son of an attorney who attended private school his entire childhood – Svalina has an obvious connection to the working man. He served four years of reserve duty in the Army Signal Corps as part of his scholarship to Washington and Lee and waited tables while in school.

Now he’s developing even more empathy and credibility with his clients because of his own medical issues – a mysterious degenerative condition that has caused spinal cord atrophy and left him in a wheelchair. For more than five years, he was being treated for multiple sclerosis, which turned out to be a misdiagnosis. Svalina has found a way to spin his condition into a positive, though, saying it has made him a better attorney and helped him show his children – ages 12 and 10 – how to battle through adversity.

It also has encouraged him to redouble his efforts to give back to local charities, including work with Friends of Caroline Hospice, the Beaufort County YMCA, and Toys for Tots. “I think it’s important to be involved for a number of reasons,” Svalina said. “First of all, to help the community, and also to show people in the community that lawyers aren’t just TV advertisers.” Svalina continues to show he is much more than that.