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M. Craig Garner Jr.
Shareholder
803.799.9800 Main803.933.1460 Direct Fax
803.753.3278 Main Fax
cgarner@mcnair.net
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Columbia, SC Office
1221 Main Street
Suite 1800
Columbia, SC 29201
Overview
Craig Garner has participated in various areas of the practice. He has primarily a transactions and business organization practice, with his largest industry concentrations being hospitals, financial institutions, and tax-exempt organizations. He also served as General Counsel to the Firm for more than ten years.
He had extensive experience in health care transactions, commercial and real estate lending, financial institution regulatory matters and museum law. Craig was lead counsel for one of the hospitals in a joint arrangement that consolidated the operations into a new tax-exempt health care system. He has represented hospitals in various types of business and regulatory matters, including False Claims Act investigations.
Craig has served as counsel for the borrower in tax-exempt financings and in interest rate swap transactions. He has formed new banks, has handled complex loan workouts and bank mergers and acquisitions, has represented a bank in a hostile take-over campaign and has a general business practice involving a museum and other tax-exempt corporations. He has represented attorneys in professional liability claims and in disciplinary proceedings, and has presented anti-trust compliance seminars and other training seminars for clients.
- Lead counsel in two hospital/medical center acquisitions and in formation of multi-hospital entity
- Counsel to tax-exempt healthcare borrower in more than $1 billion tax exempt bonds issued since mid-1990’s and related interest rate swaps
- Lead counsel in forming multiple banks
- Lead counsel in multiple bank mergers and branch acquisitions/sales
- Lead lender’s counsel in corporate and commercial loans and workouts
- Trustee, Former General Counsel, Brookgreen Gardens
- Board of Trustees, Thornwell Home for Children
- Former Board Member, Audit and Risk Committee Chair, Trust Committee Chair and Special Committee Chair, First Citizens Bancorporation and First Citizens Bank & Trust
- Former Chair and Board Member, South Carolina Higher Education Foundation
- Chair, SC Bar New Building Special Task Force (ad hoc task force)
- Charter Member, Columbia Bank Counsel Group
- Past Chair ('99 - '04), Former Board Member ('96 - '09) and Alumnus ('96), Leadership South Carolina
- Former Vice Chair and Board Member, Domestic Abuse Center of South Carolina
- Former Vice Chair and Board Member, Make-A-Wish Foundation of South Carolina
- Former Member, United Way of the Midlands Allocation Panel
- Former Deacon and Chairman of Budget & Finance Committee, Eastminster Presbyterian Church
- Former Chair, Davidson Alumni Association, Columbia Chapter
- Former Chair, Davidson Alumni Admissions Program, Columbia Chapter
- Former Board Member, South Carolina Family Business Forum
- Former Chair, Corporate Law Section of SC Bar
- Speaker, Mid-Year Meeting of the South Carolina Bar
- Concurrent Session Presenter at the 2009 Conference for Public and Independent College and University Trustees. Session Topic: "The Growing Importance of the Trustees of 501(c)(3) Organizations"
- Concurrent Session Presenter at the 2010 Conference for Public and Independent College and University Trustees. Session Topic: "Trustees' Responsibilities in Managing Investments"
- Faculty Member on Continuing Legal Education seminars of the South Carolina Bar and of other sponsors
Craig is also a member of the American Health Lawyers Association; the American Bar Association, where he is a member of the Business Law, Litigation, and Real Property, Probate and Trust sections; the Richland County Bar Association; and the Columbia Bank Counsel Association, of which he was a founding member.
Craig was appointed to the South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee’s Corporate Code Revision Study Committee, and was a frequent contributor to the South Carolina Family Business Forum's newsletter and an editor of the South Carolina Corporate Law Practice Manual.
- Named, The Best Lawyers in America© (2005-2019)
- "Lawyer of the Year," Health Care Law - Columbia (2015)
- "Lawyer of the Year," Banking and Finance Law - Columbia (2011)
- Named, Legal Elite of the Midlands, Columbia Business Monthly (2016-2018)
- Awarded, Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rating*
- Listed, South Carolina Super Lawyers®, Health Care (2008-2015)
- Inaugural Recipient, Leader of Distinction Award, Leadership South Carolina (2010)
- Recipient, Distinguished Leadership Award, National Association for Community Leadership (2000)
*AV®, BV®, AV Preeminent®, and BV Distinguished® are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies.
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January 1, 2004
Durant v. SCDHEC
Case Cite: 604 S.E. 2d 704
Durant v. SCDHEC
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January 1, 1998
Taylor v. Richland Memorial Hospital
Case Cite: 495 S.E.2d 431 (S.C. 1998)
Taylor v. Richland Memorial Hospital
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January 1, 1992
South Carolina Department of Parks v. Brookgreen Gardens
Case Cite: 424 S.E.2d 465 (S.C. 1992)
South Carolina Department of Parks v. Brookgreen Gardens
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January 1, 1988
Blanton Enterprises, Inc. v. Burger King Corporation
Case Cite: 680 F. Supp. 753
Blanton Enterprises, Inc. v. Burger King Corporation
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January 1, 1982
Purvis v. Consolidated Energy Systems Company
Case Cite: 674 F. 2d 217
Purvis v. Consolidated Energy Systems Company
