Butler Snow hires 2 lawyers for its new office in Jacksonville, Florida

Bonds

Emily Magee and Bailey Williams have joined Butler Snow LLP’s public finance practice at its new office in Jacksonville, Florida, the firm announced Thursday.

The Jacksonville office is the firm’s first in Florida and 28th location in the United States.

“We are thrilled to welcome Emily and Bailey to Butler Snow and our national public finance practice,” said Christopher Maddux, the firm’s chair. “This is another exciting moment in the firm’s strategic expansion efforts as we continue growing to better serve our clients across key markets and practices.”

Magee has experience in public finance, healthcare finance and structured lending, the firm said.

She has served as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter’s counsel, lender’s counsel, borrower’s counsel and trustee’s counsel for tax-exempt and taxable financings, including governmental capital improvements and infrastructure, utilities, airports, seaports, affordable housing, senior living facilities, private and public hospitals, multi-state health systems, higher education charter schools, 501 (c)(3) organizations, industrial development, community development and redevelopment projects.

Magee has also represented national and regional financial institutions and non-bank financial companies in a variety of structured lending transactions.

She is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and Women in Public Finance in Florida.

Magee received her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia’s School of Law.

Williams has experience in public finance and healthcare finance, the firm said. She has represented clients as bond counsel, borrower’s counsel and lender’s counsel in connection with a variety of tax-exempt and taxable municipal and corporate bond financings across various industries, including healthcare and senior living facilities, charter schools, and affordable housing.

She is a member of the Florida Bar Association, the Jacksonville Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division.

Before becoming a lawyer, she worked as a market analyst at a Washington, D.C.-based data analytics firm.

Williams received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Florida State University. She received her Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in International and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law.

Butler Snow in early April expanded its presence in Alabama, adding 22 lawyers and opening an office in Huntsville, its third in the state.

Butler Snow is “striving for strategic expansion” into an area brimming with new economic activity, Maddux told The Bond Buyer.

It also has formed a strategic alliance with Maynor & Stiers LLC, a federal government relations firm. With locations in Huntsville and Washington, D.C., Maynor & Stiers works with members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, representing clients on matters with the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, NASA, Homeland Security and the Department of State.

Butler Snow’s public finance, tax incentives and credit market group offers a comprehensive range of services spanning all types of state and municipal bonds. 

The group was recognized among the nation’s top public finance practices by Refinitiv in 2022, with the public finance team ranking in the top 10 nationally in several categories, including bond counsel, negotiated bond counsel, long- and short-term bond counsel, private bond counsel and private counsel.

Refinitiv also ranked Butler Snow as the top firm in the Southeast and number one in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Colorado and Tennessee.