DALLAS Mike McGinnis has rejoined Denver-based Brownstein Hyatt & Farber after a four-year absence and will lead its 10-attorney public finance group, the firm said last week.
McGinnis joins from the Colorado office of Snell & Wilmer LLP.
With the addition of Mike McGinnis, Brownstein Hyatt & Farber offers our clients one of the most sophisticated public finance practices in Colorado and the West, said Bruce James, the firms chief executive officer and managing partner. As growth continues in the Western U.S., our teams experience matching public participation and tax revenue with private funding will be critical if states hope to keep pace with development demands.
The addition is another step in a growth process that has more than doubled the firms bond practice since 2002. At that time, Brownstein Hyatt consisted of just four bond lawyers. Since last year, it has not only added five new lawyers, but the firm also established an Albuquerque office. Overall, the firm employs more than 100 lawyers who handle a wide variety of practice areas up from about 50 attorneys in 2002.
Brownstein Hyatt also has offices in Washington, D.C., and Glenwood Springs, Colo.
McGinnis had originally joined Brownstein Hyatt in 1988. While there, he built a strong public finance law practice that included both traditional bond law work as well as working on airport development projects, such as rental car facilities.
McGinnis said that because his practice, especially airport bond work, was growing at a very fast pace, he thought it might be beneficial to have a firm with a larger national presence behind him. He thought at the time that his efforts would be better with Snell & Wilmer.
It looked like a great opportunity, he said. They had a much larger platform, and I thought that it would help me as my practice began to grow. After a few years, however, I saw that in fact it was not necessary to be part of a larger firm. My practice was growing, anyway.
In July, Brownsteins James asked McGinnis to consider rejoining the firm.
In the time that I had been gone, Brownstein Hyatt had really built a much larger bond practice, McGinnis said. He said that with the addition of the Albuquerque office, the firms public finance team was very strong. Perry Bendicksen, David Buchholtz, Jill Sweeney, and Eddie Duffy, formerly of Sutin, Thayer & Brownes Albuquerque office, joined the firm in 2002, and in March, former Modrall Sperling Roehl Harris & Sisk bond lawyer Bonnie Paisley joined the firm.
Bond lawyers at Brownstein Hyatts Denver office are Greg Berger, Bob Coyne, K.C. Veio, and Anastasia Khokhryakova.
Although McGinnis officially joined Brownstein Hyatt in September, he was wearing multiple hats as he worked to complete transactions for both that firm and transactions he had begun at Snell.
It was a little hectic, he said. But now I can look at focusing on areas to continue to build my practice and the firms. Certainly we want to continue with work on airport deals, but we also want to look at expanding into work for metropolitan districts and 501(c)(3)s, as well as our general practice areas.
Since 1991, he has assisted with the development or financing of more than a dozen airport projects with an estimated value of over $750 million. His work includes projects at Denver International Airport, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and Houstons George Bush Intercontinental Airport. He is currently working on consolidated rental car facility financings in Kansas City, Anchorage, and Chicago.
