Greenville's Leading Lawyers - Gray Geddie
Band 1
LABOR & EMPLOYMENT
Gray Geddie, Shareholder
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC
Raised in Mount Olive, NC, Gray Geddie got his first taste of Greenville pursuing a BA in economics and business at Furman, where he was recruited as a scholarship football player. Intent on a career in banking, he went to USC Law initially to broaden his resume. “Once I got to law school, I found it fascinating and enjoyable and frankly, forgot all about banking,” he says.
After law school, he began working as a trial attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, trying cases of all types in the federal courts of the seven states where TVA operated. Not long after, he was lured back to Greenville. “In 1974, two of my law school classmates, Jimmie Stewart and Lewis Smoak, contacted me about moving to Greenville and joining their firm – Thompson, Ogletree & Deakins – to help try the Darlington Mill closure back pay case,” he says. Geddie built his practice in Greenville and was elected Managing Shareholder in 2000. He moved to Atlanta in 2003 to lead the firm and resumed his practice in Greenville last year when his term expired.
Geddie practices in the Labor and Employment area and handles cases involving employment discrimination, retaliation, wage-hour and other employment issues. “I prefer the trial aspects of employment cases because of the challenges that you always face as a lawyer,” he says. “Every case is different – the facts, the witnesses, the legal issues, the industry involved – it is this variety of work that keeps one sharp and involved in the practice.”