Meet General Counsel Will Britt

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Get to know DPH’s General Counsel Will Britt in his own words! Will manages the agency’s team of attorneys and paralegals, as well as those devoted to compliance and risk management, internal audits, and freedom of information. 

According to Will, the passion that DPH’s employees have for public health is infectious, “if you’ll excuse the public health pun,” he added. “Our agency is full of highly educated, exceptionally bright and hard-working people who are here because they chose a career dedicated to service,” Will said. 

Can you tell me a little about what you do, and the aspects of your position that you find most rewarding?
I am the General Counsel for DPH and am responsible for leading the Office of General Counsel, which includes not only a team of attorneys and paralegals, but also the Office of Compliance and Risk Management, the Office of Internal Audits, and the Freedom of Information Office. I am very fortunate to be able to provide legal advice and counsel to our Executive Leadership Team as well as to the agency's Director. As such, every single day I find myself involved in issues that directly impact the residents of our state. It is incredibly rewarding to know that what we do here at DPH can truly help improve the lives of South Carolinians, even if so much of what we do goes unnoticed. 

What originally attracted you to work at DPH?
I had been in private practice for 15 years, working in several different subject matter areas, including health law. I was thoroughly enjoying the practice of law, but I was growing frustrated with the business side of private practice. After discussing it with my wife, I decided that I would keep my eyes open for any in-house counsel opportunities in the health field. As luck would have it, around that same time the Department of Health and Environmental Control announced that it had just hired a law school classmate of mine as its General Counsel, and they posted another job opening for an attorney in public health. 

I had never really given the public sector much thought, but I knew and respected my former classmate, who himself had been in private practice, and I was extremely intrigued from what I knew of public health. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to join DHEC's Office of General Counsel, and I quickly learned that there was so much more to public health and public health law than I had appreciated. I found myself working with incredibly passionate people who believed in the mission of the agency and were driven to do their part in improving the lives of the people of the state. I have been with the agency (formerly DHEC, now DPH) ever since.

What do you value most about working at DPH, and what has kept you here?
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, is credited with saying, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." So perhaps it is the preacher's kid in me, but the thing I value most about working at DPH is working for an organization whose mission is to protect, promote, and improve the health and well-being of everyone in South Carolina. That stated mission is the driving force behind the decisions we make, and it is something that all of us at the agency live out each and every day. 

What keeps me here is the people. Goodness knows we have seen some challenges over the last five or six years, not the least of which was a historic pandemic. But each and every time things have gotten tough, our team has come together to try our best to do right by the people of South Carolina. It is those relationships that have carried me and others safely through the storms. Others have heard me say this, but in the nearly 12 years I have worked for the state, not once have I sat in my driveway in the morning and wished I didn't have to go to work. Sure, there have been hard days, and there are certainly things I would rather not have to deal with. But I love what I do, and I am grateful for the people I get to do it with. And that is why I am here.  

Are there any selling points that you would share with applicants that you didn’t know about when you first applied?
I can give you a couple:

First, for those who have never worked in state government, it is not uncommon to have a misperception of the talent that works for the state. In fact, in some corners it is whispered that the people you find in public service are those that could not hack it in the private sector. I heard those murmurings first-hand. What I have found is the complete opposite. Our agency is full of highly educated, exceptionally bright and hard-working people who are here because they chose a career dedicated to service. Every single day I engage with MDs, PhDs, folks with master’s degrees and professional licenses, as well as attorneys who are at the top of their field. They are extremely passionate about the mission of the agency and, if you will excuse the public health pun, their passion is infectious. It is a pleasure to work with such talented people who have challenged me professionally and made me a better attorney and a better person.

Second, when I was in private practice, I lived my life in six-minute increments, billing my time every day. It was not uncommon to work on the weekend and to do a little work while on vacation with my family. I even recall dreading snow days because all I could think about was the billable time I was going to have to make up. My life was consumed by billable hours and collections. Because I was surrounded by other attorneys who were living the same life, it felt normal. It took joining state government for me to realize there was an alternative. I will never forget the first vacation I took as a state employee. I was actually able to be fully engaged with my wife and kids, and I didn't have to worry about losing billable time. It was one of the most freeing experiences I can recall. 
That is not to say lawyers in state government do not work hard. They work extremely hard. Nor is it to criticize those in the private sector. Rather, I share my experience to point out that there is another way to live and work as an attorney in which your sole focus at work is providing the best legal advice you can to your clients, and your sole focus outside of work is your family and friends. Working for the state truly strikes the right balance.