Dealmakers of the Year: Douglass Selby
"Creative transactional lawyers help guide the principals in determining what is legally possible and any legal consequences of one structure or another."
June 19, 2019 at 02:00 PM
3 minute read
Hunton Andrews Kurth partner Douglass P. Selby serves as co-head of the firm's national public finance team. With more than 20 years of experience serving as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter's counsel in more than $10 billion of municipal financing projects around the Southeast, Selby also has played a leading role in some of Atlanta's most prominent financing projects.
Selby is currently lead finance and structuring counsel for Atlanta's estimated $5 billion, 12 million square foot mixed use development in the Gulch-area of downtown Atlanta between the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and State Farm Arena. Among other recent accomplishments, Selby served as lead outside counsel in Atlanta's 24-month negotiations with the Atlanta Hawks NBA team, resulting in a $300 million public/private financing to fund extensive renovations to State Farm Arena, which also included documenting a 30-year team nonrelocation agreement ensuring the Atlanta Hawks remain in downtown Atlanta.
Selby also represents the 165-acre Assembly Community Improvement District and was lead finance/bond counsel in the first phase of the revitalization of the former Doraville General Motors Assembly Plant. This was the first CID Bond Financing of a Transit Oriented Development in Georgia.
How do “political issues” factor into the deals that end up on the table, if at all?
Political goals and priorities are part of many (most) of the public finance transactions in which I am involved; this is particularly true of economic development transactions such as the Atlanta Gulch Development, State Farm Arena renovation and Doraville's GM/Assembly Development. Our region has benefited from visionary political leadership, particularly from Atlanta mayors and state leaders, who have intentionally leveraged the government's economic development tools to extract private-sector commitments that advance political goals and priorities, including affordable housing, multiple decade commitments to retain professional sports franchises and fairness and inclusion in contracting opportunities for all citizens in the region.
Who was one of your mentors, and what did you learn from that person?
Judge Marvin Arrington Sr. and Kevin Ross are two of my early lawyer-mentors. From Marvin I learned the power of a “handwritten note” to convey sincerity and graciousness in business relationships. From Kevin I observed the way master legal practitioners become “legal counselors” providing clients with more than just what the law says by assisting them in considering business, political and legal implications in decision-making.
What is a misconception lawyers have about transactional law?
One misconception about deal lawyers is the extent to which the legal service that we perform is merely that of a scribe. Effective transactional lawyers form a core part of the business team as transactions are initially negotiated, before any documentation is drafted. Creative transactional lawyers help guide the principals in determining what is legally possible and any legal consequences of one structure or another.
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