Dirk J. Derrick grew up in Conway, SC. His first job was at the age of six as a farmhand on his grandfather's tobacco farm in rural Horry County. He has worked and made money every year since. Dirk credits hot, humid summer days in the tobacco fields as his inspiration to get a good education and work in a climate-controlled environment.
His father was a high school teacher and football coach who had been co-captain of the 1957 South Carolina Gamecock football team. Coach Derrick was very competitive, and his children were raised to compete to win in anything they pursue. Everything was a competition including who could be the most productive in their summertime farming jobs, who could make the best grades in school, and who could win a particular athletic competition.
Dirk earned a football scholarship to Wofford College where he played for four years. After graduating, he coached college football at East Tennessee State University for one year where he met his wife, Michelle. They were married in 1985, the same year Dirk began law school at the University of South Carolina. He graduated in 1987 and began practicing in Horry County in 1988. Due to early success in the courtroom, Dirk worked his way into a partnership after just three years. In 1991, he left the partnership and established Derrick Law Firm Injury Lawyers.
For the next 20 years, Dirk operated his firm like most small law firms, but became very frustrated with the leverages held by the insurance industry which creates obstacles in providing the three things expected by our clients, getting the real value of their claims, as fast as possible, while receiving elite customer service from a trusted lawyer.
In 2015, Dirk performed a large focus group on a big case obtaining massive amounts of valuable insight and video footage of each juror’s opinions and deliberations. For the first time, Dirk shared the footage with the opposing party and found an ability to flip the leverages of time, money, uncertainty, and knowledge for his client’s benefit.
To provide the same leverage for all his clients, not just those with extremely high values, Dirk constructed a business model and in-house courtrooms to determine truth about his cases, presentation models, and jurors.
Derrick Law Firm Injury Lawyers has since grown from Dirk and one associate to 25 attorneys and over 60 staff members. Dirk also expanded the firm from one location to 10 offices throughout South Carolina with in-house courtrooms in Myrtle Beach, Conway, and North Charleston. Courtrooms are presently under construction in both Greenville and Columbia.
As of February 2025, Dirk has obtained personal data from 19,000 citizens and has case decisions and opinions from over 10,000 participants. He has also partnered with a team of data scientists to develop a proprietary interactive database to analyze the data. Dirk partners with attorneys both inside and outside the state of South Carolina in determining the truths in their cases and how to leverage the same. He has recently begun “The Appraisers Podcast”, a closed podcast for plaintiff lawyers only sharing what is being learned through the individual focus groups and the big data coming from all of them collectively.
Since 2021, Dirk has been recognized annually by Best Lawyers for Workers' Compensation Law - Claimants. Additionally, in years 2023-2025, Dirk was evaluated on professional achievement and peer recognition by the Super Lawyers organization. Each of those years, he was selected as a Super Lawyer (SC-Personal Injury).
Myrtle Beach Area Personal Injury Attorney Dirk Derrick Supports The Local Community
He is a founding member and elder of The Rock, Conway's Community Church, and has been involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for over 45 years. In 2019, Dirk began the “Get Seen, Get Paid” Athletic Camp Scholarship in honor of his father, Julius Derrick, who was an orphan raised in Epworth Children’s Home. Recognizing how the trajectory of his life was changed by his father’s scholarship, education and work ethic, these scholarships are offered to allow talented student-athletes with a strong work ethic to attend camps in hopes of earning an athletic scholarship.
Derrick Law Firm Injury Lawyers has offices in Conway, North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, Florence, Mt. Pleasant, North Charleston, Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville, SC.
