
Tina Cundari
Member | Columbia
- Phone 803.704.1096
- Email tina.cundari@smithrobinsonlaw.com
Biography
Tina Cundari is a trial and appellate lawyer with two decades of experience representing individuals, businesses, and government entities in a wide variety of civil and criminal litigation. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation, False Claims Act investigations, white-collar defense, and appellate advocacy. Tina also has extensive experience representing lawyers and law firms in legal malpractice actions and proceedings before the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. She is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
Tina has tried cases in state and federal court and in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) forum. She has argued appeals in the South Carolina Supreme Court, the South Carolina Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She has drafted cert oppositions in the United States Supreme Court.
Tina is a former Assistant United States Attorney and former Chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia, South Carolina.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Tina was in private practice for 13 years at another South Carolina law firm.
Tina began her career as a law clerk to the Honorable Jean Hoefer Toal, former Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. Later, she spent a summer clerking for the Honorable Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., United States District Court Judge.
Tina has been an adjunct instructor for the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law where she taught legal writing to first-year students and an advanced legal writing course titled “Legal Writing for the Courts.”
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Tina grew up in Ladson, South Carolina, where she attended public schools. Tina is married to Cory Manning, an Iowa native and also a lawyer.
- South Carolina
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, J.D., 2003
- College of Charleston, Honors Program, B.A. in English, 1996
- 2023 “Midlands Legal Elite” for Criminal White Collar, Professional Liability, Columbia Business Monthly
- Best Lawyers in America (Commercial Litigation, 2018 and 2026; Appellate Practice, 2016 – 2018; Litigation – Securities, 2026)
- South Carolina “Super Lawyer” (Business Litigation, 2016 – 2018; Rising Star, Business Litigation, 2012 – 2014)
- S.C. Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year (2016)
- Leadership in the Law, South Carolina Lawyers Weekly
- “Women to Watch,” Columbia Regional Business Report
- “20 Under 40,” The State Newspaper
- South Carolina Bar
- Women’s White Collar Defense Association, S.C. Chapter, Secretary and Founding Member
- South Carolina Law Initiative Council
- John Belton O’Neall Inn of Court, Past President
- South Carolina Bar Trial and Appellate Advocacy Section, Past Chair
- Richland County Bar Association, Past Co-Chair, Wellness Committee
- South Carolina Women Lawyers Association
- Federal Bar Association
- Past Member, College of Charleston Foundation Board (2016 – 2024)
- Chair, Development Committee (2020 – 2024)
- Member, Executive Committee (2020 – 2024)
- Past Chair, Board of Directors, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Columbia
- Past President, Shandon Neighborhood Council
- Co-Author, “The False Claims Act: A Primer,” S.C. Lawyer (Sept. 2024)
- Co-Author, “Oral Argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit,” Practicing Before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: A Guide from Start to Finish, S.C. Bar (2022)
- Editorial Board, Appellate Practice in South Carolina, 3d edition (2017)
- Author, “Arbitrating a Case in the FINRA forum,” S.C. Lawyer (Nov. 2016)
- Chapter Author, Madam Chief Justice, USC Press (2015)
- Co-Author, “Who Can Stay and Who Must Go: The Tension Between Witness Sequestration and the Right of Crime Victims to be Present,” S.C. Lawyer (Mar. 2010)