About George
George’s practice focuses on representing corporate and commercial clients with an emphasis on the automotive industry and health care entities. He has handled the acquisition and sale of numerous businesses, including automobile dealerships, manufacturing businesses, and hospitals and health care related entities. George also advises corporate clients on issues pertaining to business and tax planning and was involved in the recent formation of a group within the firm to focus on succession planning for businesses. In addition to being part of the firm’s Corporate Practice Group, George participates in the work of the Banking and Real Estate Practice group because of his regular advice to corporate trustees on issues pertaining to bond and escrow transactions, including bond defaults, and his work in the field of asset-based lending.
His professional activities in recent years have included serving as a member of the Board of Bar Examiners of the Alabama State Bar (examining in the field of Business Organizations), serving on the Editorial Board of the Alabama Lawyer (the official publication of the Alabama State Bar), and membership on the Negotiated Acquisitions Committee and the Securities Law Committee of the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association. George presently serves as Chair of the Technology Committee of the Business Law Section.
He is listed in the current edition of Who’s Who in American Law and is named as a leading practitioner in the 2008 and 2009 editions of Chambers USA, a highly regarded directory featuring client-led intelligence on America’s leading lawyers for business. Chambers USA also named him in 2009 and 2010 as a “Leader in their Field”. George was recently named by LawDragon Magazine as one of the 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, in the fields of Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions. In addition, he was selected for inclusion in Alabama Super Lawyers in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
George lectures frequently on various topics, including the acquisition and merger of business entities, successor liability in asset transactions and the use of arbitration clauses in reducing legal exposure. He served on the editorial board for the ABA publication, MODEL ASSET PURCHASE AGREEMENT WITH COMMENTARY, and is currently serving on the committee revising a prior publication, the MODEL STOCK PURCHASE AGREEMENT WITH COMMENTARY. Both publications have been recognized as influential sources for the drafting of acquisition documents. He is also a co-author of the recently-published American Bar Association publication, THE M&A PROCESS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE BUSINESS LAWYER, a guide to handling acquisitions. He moderated a panel at the ABA Business Law Section’s 2007 Spring Meeting in Tampa, Florida, entitled “Closing the Acquisition—Pitfalls and Pendulums”, and chaired a symposium at the ABA Convention in New York in 2008 on the subject of “Due Diligence in the Digital Age”, a topic encompassing not only use of technology in due diligence activities but also the use of extranets and other electronic tools to manage numerous areas of legal activity, from acquisitions to bond defaults to complex litigation.
George attended the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, from 1971 through 1975 and received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, summa cum laude, in May, 1975. Activities and honors in undergraduate school included Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Who’s Who Among Students, the Sewanee Ski and Outing Club, the Order of Gownsmen, Omicron Delta Epsilon, and the E.G. Richmond Social Science Prize. He attended Vanderbilt Law School from 1975 through 1978 and received the degree of Juris Doctor in June, 1978. Activities and honors at Vanderbilt Law School included the Order of the Coif (limited to students in the top 10% of the class), the Editorial Board of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Phi Alpha Delta, the Jessup Moot Court Team, and the Moot Court Board. During law school he co-authored A Guide to Appellate Advocacy, the law school text for its appellate advocacy program. His senior thesis, “Transnational Application of the Federal Securities Code” was published in 1979.
Following law school, he served as Law Clerk to The Honorable Frank H. McFadden, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He became associated with the firm of Burr & Forman in 1979 and became a partner in the firm in 1986. George most recently served on the firm’s Executive Committee in 2005-2006.