Faculty Profile: Eric Osborne

Eric Osborne is a commercial litigator adept at both trial and appellate level work. He has single-handedly tried over a dozen cases before a jury and has briefed ten separate matters before the United States Supreme Court. He is knowledgeable in many different substantive areas of law and all aspects of practice, from pre-deal risk assessment to white-collar criminal investigations and disputes involving non-profit organizations.

At Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, Eric focuses his practice on the firm’s Antitrust and Cost Recovery, Government Compliance and Investigation, Civil Rights, and Commercial Litigation practices. For example, Eric was heavily involved in prosecuting the firm’s antitrust actions against the credit card and packaged seafood industries. Eric has assisted multiple firm clients with confidential investigation and compliance questions. Eric is currently handling a civil rights case on behalf of a prisoner who has been held in solitary confinement for nearly eight years. And Eric has handled significant commercial litigation disputes, including breach of contract, trade secret, and construction disputes. He was also part of the team that eliminated a $150 million verdict on appeal in what is believed to be the largest appeal (by dollar value) in Tennessee history. See Opry Mills Mall Ltd. Partnership v. Arch Ins.

Co., 2018 WL 576194 (Tenn. Ct. App. Jan. 26, 2018).

Before joining Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, Eric practiced law in Washington D.C. and Houston, Texas. In his prior work Eric developed extensive experience in white collar matters covering the False Claims Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and investigations and questions related to the Office of Foreign Asset Control. Eric also acted as volunteer prosecutor in Houston and single-chaired over a dozen trials from voir dire to verdict. Because of this background, Eric often advises clients at Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison whenever white collar or other criminal issues may be implicated.

Much of Eric’s practice has focused on appellate and trial level briefing of complex issues in federal and state courts. For his appellate work, Eric has been recognized the past three years (two years in Texas, one year in Tennessee) by “Super Lawyers” as a Rising Star—Appellate. In addition, since2016, Eric has published law review articles in the flagship journals of two first-tier law schools. See Eric G. Osborne, et al., Rethinking Deference: How the History of Church Property Disputes Calls Into Question Long-Standing First Amendment Doctrine, 69 SMU L. Rev. 811 (2016); Eric G. Osborne, et. al, Intending the Worst: ISIS’s Specific Intent to Destroy the Christians of Iraq, 46 Pepperdine L. Rev. 545 (2019).

In addition to his civil rights work, Eric devotes a substantial portion of his practice and external time to community engagement and pro bono representation. For example, in 2016, Eric helped draft an open letter to Secretary of State John Kerry that was a part of the successful effort to have genocide declared against ISIS for its treatment of Christians in Iraq and Syria. Eric serves on the Legal Services Corporation’s Emerging Leaders Council, a national group of young leaders working to increase public awareness of and support for equal access to justice for low-income Americans. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and lifelong Presbyterian, Eric also serves on the board of the Presbyterian Foundation—the national foundation that supports the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—and until recently served on the board of the Medical Benevolence Foundation, a Presbyterian group that provides medical care and medical training in some of the poorest countries in the world. Locally, Eric serves on the board of the Nashville Wine Auction and on the Endowment Committee at First Presbyterian Church.

Eric attended Amherst College (B.A. French & History), Princeton Theological Seminary (M. Div.), and Stanford Law School (J.D.). He clerked for the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.