John C. Ethridge, Jr.

John C. Ethridge, Jr. is a partner in the Corporate Section of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.

He has almost 25 years experience advising clients with respect to a wide variety of business transactions including acquisitions and divestitures involving both publicly-and privately-held businesses, joint ventures, venture capital investments, lease financing, commercial lending, public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities and technology licensing.

In addition to his transaction based practice, Mr. Ethridge also is engaged in a general corporate law practice in which he advises manufacturers, distributors, retailers, service providers and technology companies, and other clients with respect to the organization and formation of business entities, corporate governance, financing arrangements and the negotiation and preparation of agreements and contracts relating to those businesses including employment agreements, shareholder agreements, licensing agreements and supply and distribution agreements.

Mr. Ethridge received a B.S. degree in business administration with a major in accounting from the University of North Carolina in 1978. He received a J.D. degree, with distinction, from Emory University in 1982 where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. While at Emory he served on the Board of Editors of the Emory Law Journal and was the recipient of the Myron Penn Laughlin Award for excellence in legal writing.

Mr. Ethridge currently serves as a member of the firms Executive Committee and is actively involved in leadership roles with a number of educational, religious, and civic organizations. Mr. Ethridge is a member of the Atlanta and American Bar Association.