Profile
Taylor English allows me the flexibility to apply my sophisticated skill set to the legal problems and concerns of real people and to reach solutions that work for their particular needs.
Melissa (Missi) McMorries has extensive experience in a variety of corporate matters, both large and small. Her work in corporate governance and transactions, coupled with her trust and estate planning experience, position her to advise both closely held and family businesses in their day-to-day and long-range planning and needs.
Ms. McMorries represents several manufacturing companies, technology start-up businesses, health care management companies and event planning, production and public relations firms. She has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, corporate finance and restructuring, negotiating complex corporate and commercial agreements and negotiating disputes between business owners.
Ms. McMorries’ estate planning practice includes preparation of wills, trusts and related documents, including counseling clients on tax planning options. She also counsels same-sex couples on estate planning and cohabitation matters.
Ms. McMorries started her career in-house, first with RJR Nabisco Inc. as counsel and then The Regina Co. as vice president and general counsel. She later went into private practice, first with a business law firm based in Atlanta and then with an international law firm, in their respective corporate and securities groups. After serving as interim executive director of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, she formed her own practice, representing start-up companies and estate planning clients. Ms. McMorries has been an adjunct professor of law at Emory University School of Law since January 2012, teaching “deal skills” to second- and third-year law students enrolled in Emory’s Transactional Law Certificate Program.
Memberships
North Carolina State Bar, 1982-present
Atlanta Bar Association – Estate Planning & Probate Section
Women’s Finance Exchange, Board of Directors
Lost-n-Found Youth, Board of Directors
Community Involvement
The Atlanta Opera, Board of Directors, 2007-2010
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Board of Directors, 1997-2008; President, 2002-2004
Arts Leaders of Metro Atlanta (ALMA), Alumna
Practice Highlights
Experience
Represented ESE Holdings in obtaining a $5 million loan from Farmers and Merchants Bank. The loan proceeds are being used for growth and expansion plans. The loan is guaranteed by Rural Development, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Represented longtime client in the sale of their software business to a private equity-backed platform software developer. Client was able to successfully exit the business at an enterprise value of $30 million (well in excess of their expectations) after an initial investment of less than $1 million.
Represented management of an industrial services company in their dispute with a controlling private equity investor. The representation ultimately led to a management buyout at a deep discount on the investor’s initial investment and subsequent triple digit annual returns on management’s investment.
Represented a paper converter in all business matters, including four acquisitions and two leveraged recapitalizations over a ten year period. Investor equity during that period increased 40 times.
Newsroom
Speaking Engagements
- "Will and Estate Planning Basics," Popeyes Lunch and Learn, Atlanta, Ga., September 25, 2015.
- April 23, 2015
- April 23, 2015
- March 6, 2014
- Taylor English Attorneys Melissa E. McMorries and Amy Burton Loggins to Speak at the State Bar of GAApril 18, 2013
Publications
- January 3, 2011
Headlines
- December 6, 2019
- December 16, 2016
- December 16, 2016
News Releases
- December 5, 2019
- December 13, 2016
- December 1, 2015
- December 1, 2014
- December 5, 2012
- December 16, 2010
Alerts
- September 12, 2016
- May 26, 2015
- November 4, 2013
- August 29, 2013
Community Involvement
- January 21, 2014
Services
Education
Wake Forest University School of Law, JD, cum laude, 1982
Duke University, BA, cum laude, 1973
Bar Admissions
Georgia
North Carolina
Accolades
Georgia Trend Legal Elite, Corporate Law, 2013, Taxes/Estates/Trusts, 2012-2016, 2019
Wake Forest Law Review, Executive Editor