Chilton Grace Simmons
Beaufort • Special Counsel
Based in the Firm’s Beaufort office, Chilton has 26 years of litigation experience, and has exclusively handled medical malpractice defense for almost two decades. She defends physicians, hospitals, and other health professionals across South Carolina in cases of alleged negligence, wrongful death, medication errors, and a variety of other malpractice claims. She also represents physicians and other medical professionals before the South Carolina Board of Medicine.
With extensive experience in court, Chilton tries on average two cases per year, which usually last between one and three weeks. She has argued and won several medical malpractice cases on summary judgment. She has taken multiple cases to verdict earning her acceptance into the American Board of Trial Advocates (“ABOTA”), which required being voted in by both plaintiff and defense bar members. She is currently the President of the ABOTA Charleston Chapter, having served on the executive committee for 3 years prior.
Active in the community, Chilton chaired Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s Valentine Ball and the Historic Beaufort Foundation’s Soiree. She performed in “Dancing With Our Stars” to help raise $200,000 for the Child Abuse Prevention Association (CAPA) and Open Arms Shelter in Beaufort, but has since given up her dancing career opting to remain in the law profession. She is a long time member of SC Defense Trial Attorneys’ Association, where she served on the Board in the recent past, and a long time supporter of Beaufort Academy, where she served on the Board of Trustees, including as Board Chair, for 10 years.
Chilton is married with four children and enjoys reading, traveling and exercise, with a particular fervor for her side jam teaching barre classes at a local barre/yoga studio.
- South Carolina, 2000
- 2024 South Carolina Legal Elite – Medical Malpractice-Defendant, Charleston Business Magazine
A description of the selection process methodologies on which these accolades are based can be found here.
- American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
- Executive Committee
- South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys’ Association (SCDTAA)
- Board of Directors – At Large
- South Carolina Women Lawyers
In her spare time, Chilton enjoys traveling with her family, which has morphed into college tours with her three children, reading, and listening to Podcasts when traveling the state for work. She also has a recent penchant for learning how to dance hip hop to raise funds for CAPA.