A mathematics cum laude graduate of North Carolina A & T State University, Merl Code earned his law degree from the University of South Carolina Law School, where he was elected president of the South Carolina Law School Student Bar Association. He played eight years of professional football in the Canadian Football League before settling in Greenville to practice law. He is counsel in the Greenville Law Firm of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak, & Stewart.

A Municipal Court Judge in Greenville, Merl is the owner/CEO of Precision Tool Manufacturer, owner/chair of Code Insurance Associates, and president of Code & Associates, a sports management agency.

In 1984, he was selected as Young Lawyer of the Year by the South Carolina Bar Association, and in 1997, he received their Compleat Lawyer Award. The South Carolina Business Network named him Business Person of the Year in 1996; in the same year, he was honored by Vision Magazine as being one of the Top 25 Business Influencers and was awarded the Order of the Palmetto by the Governor of South Carolina. In 1998, he received the Greenville Bar Association’s Tommy Thomason Award and in 1999, he was inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame.

In addition to Furman, Merl serves on the boards of the Palmetto Institute, Local Development Corporation, the Institute for Child Success, the Hollingsworth Funds, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina Board of Directors, the Greenville Urban League (former chair), and the United Way of Greenville (former chair).

Merl and his wife, Denise, have two children.