Granville Tate has been with the firm for over 20 years and has served as Chairman of the firm's Commercial Department. He focuses his practice on banking, corporate, mergers and acquisitions, securities and real estate matters.

Granville's practice has particular emphasis on corporate, finance, merger and acquisition, compliance, enforcement and regulatory matters for financial institutions.  He is the Chair of Brunini's financial institutions practice group which ranked 52nd in the United States in terms of deal value and number of mergers in 2006.  His experience includes representation of bank holding companies and de novo institutions. He has represented both buyers and sellers in merger and acquisition transactions and is experienced in trust preferred securities issuances and debt and equity securities offerings. He regularly advises Boards of Directors and senior officers regarding their fiduciary duties and corporate governance responsibilities. Among other banking organizations he represents, he has supervised numerous transactions for Trustmark Corporation, the parent corporation of Trustmark National Bank, a multi-state bank holding company headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, including the interstate transactions by which Trustmark entered the Tennessee, Florida and Texas banking markets. Granville practices before all federal and state agencies that regulate financial services providers. He is recognized in Woodward/White's Best Lawyers in America in the area of Banking Law.

Granville has represented clients on merger and acquisition transactions in a variety of other industries, including timber, retail, television, polymer, software and ATM/debit network companies.  He represented the Special Committee established by the Board of Directors of PULSE EFT Association, a Texas nonprofit corporation with approximately 4,000 members, on corporate, governance, strategic planning, fairness opinion and other processes that resulted in the acquisition of PULSE EFT Association by Discover Financial Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., for $311 million in 2005.

Granville's real estate practice includes the purchase and sale of real estate for buyers and sellers, as well as the representation of landowners who own and manage large tracts of land for recreational, agricultural, conservation and timber management purposes. He has handled numerous conservation easement transactions, including IRS audits of conservation easement donations, and is a frequent speaker on conservation easement topics.  Granville has extensive experience working with state and federal regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local levee districts that exercise jurisdiction over these types of properties.

Granville is actively involved in professional and civic activities. He served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Habitat for Humanity/Metro Jackson, Inc. for 12 years and is a graduate of the 1996-1997 class of Leadership Jackson.  Granville currently serves as the Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, having been first appointed to that position in 2002.

Community & Professional Activities

• Hinds County Bar Association
• Mississippi Bar Association (Member, Sections on Business Law)
• The American Bar Association (Member, Sections on Business Law and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law)
• American Judicature Society