Doug is one of the leaders of the firm's on-going infrastructure and public-private partnership initiative and serves on the firm’s opinion committee. He regularly represents borrowers, developers, underwriters and lenders in a range of tax-advantaged structures using tax-exempt bonds and leases, state and federal tax credits and commercial debt. He has handled transactional matters in more than 45 states.
He has extensive experience handling financing for economic development, solid waste, renewable energy (including solar, wind, hydro, biomass and biogas), resource recovery, energy efficiency, transportation and social infrastructure projects. As part of this experience, he has completed financings using production and investment tax credits, new-markets tax credits, historic rehabilitation and other federal and state incentives.
Many of these representations have involved unrated, nonrecourse project financings that require equity capital investment, creating public-private partnerships as well as special purpose governmental, corporate and non-profit entities, drafting special legislation to support the projects and the financings, acquiring assets and other entities and businesses to complete the transactions and contesting bid protests and other legal challenges. As such, they also require negotiation of the agreements to secure the land, revenue, financing and capital for these projects, the monetization of the environmental attributes and other incentives and resolution and settlement of legal disputes.
He represents and negotiates with all types of transaction participants, e.g., local, state and federal governmental issuers and sponsors, banks and financial institutions, lenders and lessors, equity investors, credit enhancers, rating agencies, nonprofit and for profit borrowers, lessees and guarantors, contractors, accountants, and technical and feasibility consultants. As a result, he regularly teams with his partners in tax, energy, real estate, corporate and litigation and his colleagues in McGuireWoods Consulting to bring a true team approach on behalf of clients to solve their needs and accomplish their goals.
From 1993 to 2001, Doug served his country in the Virginia Army National Guard, reaching the highest rank of Captain.
Served as bond, underwriter’s and developer’s counsel on tax-exempt and taxable municipal and commercial transactions involving biomethane for electricity, transportation fuel and pipeline injection, including landfill gas, waste water gas, food waste, source separated waste and animal waste.
Served as bond, lender's and borrower’s counsel on more than 100 separate issuances of clean and new clean renewable energy, qualified school construction, qualified energy conservation and qualified zone academy bonds in more than 20 states, including direct pay subsidy bonds and tax credit bonds. These transactions have involved financing landfill gas, hydroelectric, solar, wind, biomass, energy efficiency, renewable natural gas, fuel conservation and compressed natural gas engine conversion projects and facilities for public utilities, including energy governmental entities. Several of these transactions required the establishment of new enterprises and revenue streams to secure the financings.
Served as bond, borrower's, lender’s, underwriter's and special tax counsel on a variety of private activity and exempt facility bond issuances, including manufacturing, water supply, disaster area, recovery zone facility, recovery zone enterprise and gulf opportunity zone bonds, from 2000 through 2016, exceeding $2.0 billion.
Served as bond and corporate counsel for a tax-exempt solid waste bond borrower on a national basis with one billion or more in outstanding fixed and variable rate debt in 35 states to finance and refinance landfill, transfer station and hauling facilities, assets and equipment.
Represented various state and local issuers, aviation companies and underwriters on the construction and long term financing of roads, tollroads, airport facilities, various utilities and other social infrastructure, including arenas.
Represented leverage lenders, lenders, governmental sponsors, borrowers, QALICBs and other participants on federal new markets tax credit transactions in Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, Kentucky, Georgia and Texas and state new markets transactions, where applicable. These transactions have supported charitable, community, medical, manufacturing, retail, commercial and secondary education facilities for governmental, non-profit and corporate entities as real estate, construction and operating financings, using “portions of business” approaches, as needed.
Represented developers, borrowers and sponsors on transactions using investment and production tax credits for solar, wind and biomass projects in Georgia, North Carolina, Washington, Oregon and Texas.
Represented underwriters, lenders, developers, localities, and local and regional authorities on governmental transactions, including special assessment, tax increment financings and property assessed clean energy (PACE) financings.
Represented issuers and borrowers on bond validation proceedings and in taxable state and local tax incentive and economic development transactions.
Represented parties on numerous state and federal regulatory efforts, including IRS bond audits and SEC compliance matters.
Represented various concerns on local, state and federal legislative activities to support various financing activities.
Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Project Finance, Law360, 2018 - present
Board Member, Council of Development Finance Agencies
Member, Virginia State Bar
Member, Virginia Bar Association
Member, West Virginia State Bar
Member, National Association of Bond Lawyers
Member, Local Government Attorneys of Virginia
Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Banking and Finance Law, Project Finance Law, 2020, Woodward/White, Inc.