Travis C. Wheeler

Travis serves as a Vice Chair of the ABA Antitrust Section’s Civil Practice and Procedure Committee.  Prior to that appointment, he was a Vice Chair of the Section’s Exemptions & Immunities Committee for three years. He is currently only the South Carolinian to hold a leadership position in the ABA’s Antitrust Section.

In addition, Travis also has experience in local government, election and constitutional matters. He was part of a team that challenged a mayoral primary result, and he has challenged special legislation targeting individual special purpose districts in violation of the South Carolina Constitution. Travis has also prosecuted, pro bono, criminal domestic violence cases before juries in Orangeburg, Kershaw, and Sumter counties.

Prior to coming to South Carolina, he practiced antitrust law with Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. and clerked for  the Honorable Reynaldo G. Garza of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He received his J.D. with High Honors from Duke University School of Law and his B.A, summa cum laude, from Wofford College. He is a member of the Order of the Coif and Phi Beta Kappa.

Community & Professional

Outside his practice, Travis served six years on the Board of Trustees of the Montessori School of Columbia. He also served as the President of the Rosewood Community Council in 2007 and 2008 and as Vice President of the Central Rosewood Neighborhood Association in 2011. He was also Chairperson of the Columbia Parks and Recreation Foundation in 2013-14, on which he began serving in 2008.

Outside Maynard Nexsen

Away from the office and the classroom, Travis and his wife, Lisa, keep busy with an fourteen-year-old son, an eleven-year-old daughter, a golden retriever, and three backyard chickens.  Outside of work, he can often be found cheering on his son in kart racing or school sports or watching his daughter’s dance performances. He is an avid cyclist and runner (and has run at least one mile every day since April 13, 2011).

Travis' antitrust experience includes:

• Prosecution and settlement of antitrust claims on behalf of one of the world's largest automobile manufactures injured by a conspiracy of international roll-on/roll off ocean carriers of vehicles to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers and trade lanes in connection with MDL 2471, in re Vehicle Carrier Services Antitrust Litigation.
• Representing direct purchaser victims of conspiracy to fix railroad fuel surcharges.
• Representing direct purchaser victims of conspiracy involving pork and other proteins.
• Counseling clients on antitrust compliance issues and drafting corporate antitrust compliance policies.
• Representing 15 ocean shippers in price-fixing action against ocean carriers.
• Representing corporate defendant in criminal federal investigation into alleged price-fixing.
• Represent corporate defendant in criminal federal investigation into alleged bid-rigging.
• Representation of 17 direct purchasers of polyester staple fiber in price-fixing litigation.
• Defense of a client in transportation industry in civil action alleging price-fixing of fuel surcharges.
• Conducting antitrust compliance training on-site for corporate clients.
• Challenged a change in the manner of calculating a business license fee on behalf of large South Carolina manufacturer.

Outside the antitrust context, Travis has:

• Challenged a change in the manner of calculating a business license fee on behalf of large South Carolina manufacturer.
• Represented an incumbent mayor in primary election dispute.
• First chaired defense of a defamation case at trial in federal court.
• Prosecuted numerous criminal domestic violence jury trials, pro bono.

• Columbia Business Monthly's Legal Elite of the Midlands (2016-2020, 2022-present)
• Best Lawyers in America©  for Litigation - Antitrust (2024-present)
• American Bar Foundation - Fellow
• Elected to The State Media Company’s Ninth Annual "20 Under 40" List (2012)

Travis has served as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law since 2010.  He teaches Antitrust Law in the Fall and Law & Economics in the Spring.

He has also previously served as a faculty member for the South Carolina Bar’s “Bridge the Gap” CLE.

He regularly writes and speaks on various antitrust topics, recently focusing on a proposed change to the law regarding vertical restraints.

Travis has served as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law since 2010.  He teaches Antitrust Law in the Fall and Law & Economics in the Spring.

He has also previously served as a faculty member for the South Carolina Bar’s “Bridge the Gap” CLE.

He regularly writes and speaks on various antitrust topics, recently focusing on a proposed change to the law re: vertical restraints.

Publications

Contributor, Antitrust Law Developments (Ninth Ed.), American Bar Association

Contributor, 2019 Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments, American Bar Association

Contributor, 2018 Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments, American Bar Association

Embracing the Inevitable: rethinking and Reshaping Antitrust Law re: Vertical Restraints, 35 MISS. C. L. REV. 472 (2017)

Travis, Wheeler, David Eddy, Dennis Lynch, and Marguerite Willis "Should Major Customers Opt-out of or Exclude Themselves from Antitrust Class Actions", ASSOC. OF CORP. COUNSEL: S.C. CHAPTER (Newsletter Mar. 2017)

An Economic Analysis of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 63 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 1, 573 (2000)

Speaking

Guest, “The Miseducation of Antitrust Courts: Michael Hausfeld on the Role of Economics and Experts in Antitrust Litigation” episode of Trust and Trade, a podcast by the Antitrust Law Section of the American Bar Association

Guest, “Section 2 Criminals” episode of Trust and Trade, a podcast by the Antitrust Law Section of the American Bar Association

Moderator, “Anatomy of Antitrust Litigation III: Summary Judgment, webinar for Antitrust Law Section of the American Bar Association

Guest Speaker (with Marguerite Willis), "How Does it Work There? Establishing an Antitrust Practice Off the Beaten Path," ABA Section of Antitrust law's weekly podcast, Our Curious Amalgam (August 3, 2020)

Panel Chair and Moderator, "Exemptions & Immunities: A Conflict of Laws?," ABA Section of Antitrust Law Spring Bloom (May 12, 2020)

Moderator, “Return of the Regulatory Compliance Defense,” ABA Section of Antitrust Law teleconference (October 29, 2019)

Panelist, “The Scope of Antitrust Exemptions Under the Shipping Act,” ABA Section of Antitrust Law teleconference (April 30, 2019)

Panelist, "Why Antitrust," American Bar Association Panel at the University of South Carolina (January 24, 2019)

Co-Moderator, “A Price-Fixer’s Cautionary Tale: How to Avoid Antitrust Pitfalls,” Nexsen Pruet’s 17th Annual GC Ethics CLE (Oct. 26, 2018)

Panelist, THE KNOWLEDGE GROUP, Recent Developments in Antitrust and Competition Law: 2017 (Sept. 28, 2017)

Speaker, NP UNIVERSITY, Issue Spotting for Transactional Lawyers (June 30, 2016)

Commentator (on antitrust portion), "An Hour with Alden Abbott," Hosted by the University of South Carolina Intellectual Property Law Society and Federalist Society (March 26, 2015)

Speaker, "The Dos and Don’ts of Antitrust," South Carolina Association of Corporate Counsel (October 17, 2012)