Greenberg Traurig Guides Martin Resource Management Corporation in Creation of $230 Million Employee Stock Ownership Plan

International law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP represented Martin Resource Management Corporation (MRMC or the Company), a leading independent provider of marketing, distribution and transportation of hydrocarbon products and by-products and the owner of the general partner of publicly traded Martin Midstream Partners L.P.

, in its implementation of a new Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which acquired approximately $230 million of MRMC's capital stock. The transaction was completed October 2, 2012. Greenberg Traurig's MRMC transaction team for the Company was led by Shareholders Jeffrey Kahn of the firm's Boca Raton, Fla. office and Marc Baluda of the San Francisco office. Assisting them with the transaction were Greenberg Traurig attorneys Rebecca DiStefano and Brandon Feingold of the Boca Raton office; Ronald Skloss and Katy Livingston of the Austin, Texas office; Frank Bradley of the Houston office; Jonathan Lessner of the Delaware office; and Harry Friedman of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla. office. The firm provided counsel in the areas of plan design, finance and banking arrangements, stock redemption, tax, employee benefits and other matters related to the Company's prior ESOP structure. The firm also advised in the areas of corporate and ERISA fiduciary duties. "Martin Resources reviewed the opportunity the ESOP represented, both from a corporate financial perspective and from the perspective of sharing the equity of the business with its employees," said Baluda. "By recognizing the potentially enhanced productivity resulting from employee investment in the business, as well as the tax efficient benefits offered by Congress for broad-based employee ownership, the Company has embraced the value proposition of ESOPs."