Eric K. Graben, Member
- Corporate
- Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
- Entrepreneur Services
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Outside General Counsel
- Securities and Corporate Finance
- Venture Capital and Private Equity
Eric represents both public and private company clients in corporate and securities law matters and complex transactions. He advises clients on a full range of corporate and commercial matters, including company formation and choice of entity, raising angel and venture capital, negotiating complex contracts, director and officer fiduciary duties, going public, and public company strategic transactions including mergers and acquisitions, proxy contests, corporate reorganizations, securities offerings, and managing complex commercial relationships.
Representative Matters
- Represented the founders of a private company who had built their business over 20 years in selling a majority interest in their company for over $50 million to two private equity funds.
- Represented start-up company headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina that operates an air taxi business in the Southeastern United States in capital raising and other transactions.
- Represented publicly traded textile company in its merger with a privately owned textile company.
- Represented publicly traded forest products company in connection with a 144A private placement of $400 million of senior notes and subsequent exchange offering registered on Form S-4 and a $250 million offering of floating rate notes in a takedown from a universal shelf registration statement.
- Represented wireless communications chip design start-up company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Represented NASDAQ-listed financial services holding company in connection with offering of $35 million of trust preferred securities and $40 million of trust preferred securities .
Professional Background
| 1997-present | Wyche Burgess Freeman & Parham, P.A. |
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| 1992–1994 | Visiting Assistant Professor, Clemson University Political Science Department |
| 1992 | Post-Doctoral Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory |
Educational Background
| 1997, J.D. | University of Virginia School of Law; Virginia Law Review, Editorial Board 1995–97 Order of the Coif; Lacy Withers Armor Scholar |
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| 1988, M.A. 1991, PhD. |
Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, 1990–91; MacArthur Fellow, Center for International Security Studies at Maryland, 1989–91; National Science Foundation Fellow, 1987–90; University of Virginia Presidential Fellow, 1986–87, 90–91 |
| 1986, B.S. | Physics, Clemson University, (summa cum laude) |
Bar and Court Admissions
- South Carolina Bar, 1997
Representative Community Activities
- Board of Commissioners, Greenville Housing Authority, 2000 to 2007; Chairman 2006 to 2007.
- Board of Directors, Friends of the Greenville County Volunteer GAL Program, 2004 to 2006
- Board of Advisors, Cleveland Street YMCA
- Volunteer Guardian Ad Litem for Children in DSS Abuse and Neglect Cases
- Volunteer, Palmetto Boys Shelter of Miracle Hill Ministries, 1998 to 2003
- Sunday School teacher and Basketball Ministry Leader, St. Matthew United Methodist Church
- Liberty Fellow, Class of 2007
Awards and Honors
- 1999 South Carolina Bar Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year
- Thomas Marshall Miller Prize for Community Service (Virginia School of Law, 1997)
- Robert F. Kennedy Award for Community Service (Virginia School of Law, 1997)
- Rosenblum Award for Community Service (Virginia School of Law, 1997)