Andy Coburn is a veteran corporate & securities and executive compensation & benefits lawyer who represents clients in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, joint ventures, securities offerings and other complex corporate transactions. His transactions clients include both public and private companies.
In addition to transaction-related work, Andy has spent over two decades assisting companies in the design and implementation of executive compensation and employee benefit arrangements, including incentive compensation plans, stock plans, executive employment agreements, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, severance and change in control agreements, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and other qualified retirement plans. He has worked extensively with entrepreneurs as well as with established public and private companies.
Professional and Civic Activities
Professional Activities
- American Bar Association, Committee on Mergers & Acquisitions; Committee on Venture Capital and Private Equity; Committee on Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation & Fringe Benefits and Mergers & Acquisitions Subcommittees
- ESOP Association
- National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO)
- Liberty Fellow
- Member, Aspen Global Leadership Network
- Adjunct Professor of Business Law, Furman University, Spring 2013 & 2012
Civic Activities
- Metropolitan Arts Council, Board of Directors
- Piedmont Health Foundation, Board of Directors, Chairman
- Greenville Little Theatre, endowment trustee and former Chairman of the Board of Directors, 2009
- Fourth Presbyterian Church, former Elder and Deacon
Publications and Presentations
Publications
- Former columnist for business publication, Business Black Box; published articles include:
- Regulation "A+" and Venture Capital Financing
- Negotiating with Investors: Control
- Startup Corporation Founder's Stock -- Don't Give Away the Company
- Venture Capital Seed Financing - Convertible Debt
- Selling Your Company - Potential Deal Killers
- New S.E.C. Rules for Raising Capital - Much Ado About Nothing?
- Bonus, Severance & Change of Control Arrangements - Traps for the Unwary
- The JOBS Act, Part II - Are Initial Public Offerings Coming Back?
- The JOBS Act - Three Key Things You Need to Know
- Business Succession - Don't Let the Dream Turn Into a Nightmare
- Investment Bankers, Business Brokers, and Other Financial Advisors
- Joint Ventures: Co-Development Agreements, Channel Partners and Other Forms of Entanglement
- Worker Classification: The IRS Is Coming! The IRS Is Coming!
- Do I Need a Stock Option Plan?
- Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
- Selling a Business: Eight 'Obvious' Points that Sellers Sometimes Forget
Presentations
- Instructor, Clemson University Center for Corporate Learning, Certificate of Mastery in Mergers & Acquisitions, November, 2017
Honors and Awards
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (BL Rankings) in the fields of Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships), Corporate Law, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Securities / Capital Markets Law, 2009 – Present
- Received the Best Lawyers® "Lawyer of the Year" Award in the fields of Corporate Law (Greenville), 2011; Mergers and Acquisitions Law (Greenville), 2022; Securities / Capital Markets Law (Greenville), 2022
- Recognized in Greenville Business Magazine's Legal Elite, Anti-Trust, Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities, Employee Benefits
Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Represented majority shareholder in 500+ million Euro reorganization of international conglomerate
- Represented a commercial bank in its acquisition by merger by a NASDAQ-traded bank holding company.
- Represented a NASDAQ corporation in the design and implementation of a new stock compensation program and modifications of existing stock plans to address a corporate recapitalization
- Represented a multi-national chemical and materials company in the review and revision of its short- and long-term executive incentive compensation programs.
- Represented an engineering company in the establishment of an ESOP via purchase of stock from principal shareholders.
Previous Experience
- Lieutenant, 629th Military Intelligence Battalion, Maryland Army National Guard, 1989-1993
