S.C. Code § 40-5-20
The Supreme Court may from time to time prescribe, adopt, promulgate and amend such rules and regulations as it may deem proper (a) defining and regulating the practice of law, (b) determining the qualifications and requirements for admission to the practice of law, (c) prescribing a code of ethics governing the professional conduct of attorneys at law, (d) prescribing the procedure for disciplining, suspending, disbarring and reinstating attorneys at law, (e) organizing and governing an association to be known as the South Carolina State Bar which shall be composed of the attorneys at law of the State, and which shall act as an administrative agency of the Supreme Court of South Carolina for the purpose of improving the administration of justice, and (f) fixing an annual license fee for the practice of law in this State, the payment of which shall entitle but not require any attorney to be a member in the South Carolina State Bar and providing for the collection and the disbursement of such license fees. At such time as the South Carolina State Bar is established all offices, appointments or official duties heretofore delegated or given to the South Carolina Bar Association or any officer of the same by statute or appointment of the State of South Carolina or any branch thereof shall be vested in the South Carolina State Bar and its officers.
S.C. Code § 40-5-20