Thomas W. Graves, Managing Member
Practice Description: Thomas W. Graves’ practice is primarily transactional in nature, focusing on the formation and operation of small to medium sized organizations doing business in the United States and around the world. Mr. Graves also enjoys an active practice in the areas of real estate, oil and gas, wills probate and estate planning.
Prior Experience: A native Houstonian, Mr. Graves graduated from the South Texas College of Law summa cum laude in 1973, and for the next thirteen years worked in-house for two mid-level oil and gas E&P companies. This experience culminated in the five years during which Mr. Graves served as general counsel to one of the larger E&P companies in the United States. Due to the diversified nature of that independent’s operations, Mr. Graves’ responsibilities included managing a downtown Houston office building; representing a geophysical subsidiary concentrating primarily in the Gulf of Mexico; representing a subsidiary which owned and operated a sour gas processing facility in Mississippi; in dealing with the lease records and division order; and supervising the lease records division order and insurance operations.
In 1986, Mr. Graves went into private practice. He has been a partner/member of Adair & Myers, P.L.L.C. since that time and in January 2006 became managing member of the firm. Due to his experience in the oil and gas industry and as a result of the downturn the industry saw in the early 80’s, a large portion of Mr. Graves’ early private practice focused on representing debtors and trustees in the United States Bankruptcy Courts. As that practice slowed, Mr. Graves returned to his business and transactional practice developing over time a broad base of clients in the oil field service, information technology, transportation and medical fields, as well as representing several landlords in the Greater Houston area.
Mr. Graves believes his prior experience as in-house counsel makes him uniquely qualified to deal with the legal requirements of businesses. He realizes that management and general counsel require solid representation on a timely basis at a fair price, as opposed to a cookie cutter, one-size fits all philosophy. His ability to think creatively allows him to work with clients to develop solutions to existing problems, but, most importantly, to anticipate future pitfalls in order to either avoid them or to deal with them up front, in a manner which minimizes adverse consequences and positions the client to take advantage of upcoming business opportunities.
