Stephanie Yarbrough, an experienced economic development attorney and the former Director of Economic Development for the City of Charleston, has returned to Womble Carlyle.
Yarbrough works closely with domestic and international companies seeking to expand or relocate operations to the Carolinas and the Southeastern United States. Her day-to-day practice involves helping companies as they expand or locate in South Carolina. She helps companies from the earliest stages of the deals – from site selection to starting operations, to negotiating incentives at the municipality, the county and the state level. During her professional career, she has structured many of the major economic development deals in South Carolina, particularly in the coastal region.
She has served as a member of the South Carolina Venture Capital Authority Board of Directors. She was the only Economic Development attorney in South Carolina named to the 2012 edition of “Best Lawyers in America”, and in 2013, she was one of only two attorneys named as a “Best Lawyer” for Economic Development law in South Carolina.
In addition to her work as an attorney, Yarbrough has been active in a number of community organizations, including the Preservation Society of Charleston, the College of Charleston Alumni Association Board of Directors, the South Carolina Aquarium Board of Directors, the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital Board of Directors, as well as the South Carolina Historical Society.
She is a 1995 graduate of the College of Charleston, where she served as Student Body President. She holds a J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas, Texas, where she was Managing Editor of the SMU Law Review. She also has experience in corporate and securities, as well as capital markets. In 2001, she joined Womble Carlyle in the firm’s Winston-Salem office, where she focused her practice on public company mergers and acquisitions.
Womble Carlyle employs a team approach to help clients explore opportunities for locating or expanding operations in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The economic development team combines a working knowledge of economic development incentives, land use and siting procedures and regulatory matters at the state, county and local level, drawing on relationships built over many years with governmental and civic leaders.
Womble Carlyle’s economic development team is extremely active in economic development circles throughout North and South Carolina, having provided counsel to some of the largest and most significant capital investment/job-creation projects in the Carolinas during the past ten years.
