People: Griffith F. Pitcher, Senior Counsel

Griffith F. Pitcher

Senior Counsel

Atlanta
Direct: (404) 888-1884
Fax: (404) 892-7056
0

Mr. Pitcher is a senior counsel in the Corporate Practice Group of Seyfarth Shaw’s Atlanta office, where his practice focuses primarily on municipal bond and other financing transactions. He has served as bond counsel, issuer’s counsel, underwriter’s counsel, trustee’s counsel and letter of credit bank counsel on in excess of $2 billion of municipal bond issues. Such bonds have included a variety of types of new money and refunding bond and note issues, including general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, special tax bonds, special assessment bonds, "government use" health care bonds, private activity bonds, including airport bonds, housing bonds and "qualified 501(c)(3) bonds", lease/purchase certificate of participation issues and issues including both tax exempt and taxable bonds. His experience includes (i) the use of various types of credit enhancement facilities, liquidity facilities and derivative products, including letters of credit, lines of credit, remarketing agreements, standby bond purchase agreements, reserve fund surety bonds and interest rate swaps, (ii) the use of obligated group master indenture structures for governmental and 501(c)(3) health care bond issues and the issuance of municipal options to purchase current refunding bonds to be issued at a future date. He has extensive bond validation litigation in the Georgia Superior Courts and Georgia Supreme Court and in the Florida Circuit Courts and the Florida Supreme Court. His legislative recommendations have been incorporated in the Florida Industrial Development Financing Act, the Florida Private Activity Bond Allocation Act and the Florida Taxable Bonds Act. The favorable treatment of interest on bonds for "exempt persons" under the 1954 Code and of interest on "qualified 501(c)(3) bonds" under the 1986 Code was the result of his legislative recommendations to Stanley S. Surrey of the U.S. Treasury Department in 1968. He has drafted local acts of the General Assembly of Georgia creating local authorities with bond issuing powers. He served as general counsel to the Florida Chapter of the Municipal Treasurer's Association of the United States and Canada. He served on a panel of consultants employed by the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation to advise it in connection with the establishment of a state revolving fund loan program (for local wastewater treatment facilities) to be funded with federal grants and state matching funds under the Federal Clean Water Act. His experience also includes creating and representation of a variety of non-profit and for profit corporations, corporate mergers, stock and asset acquisitions, commercial lease transactions (including synthetic leases), tax law (including tax litigation). He won the Carlson Prize awarded by NABL for the most scholarly article published in The Bond Lawyer in 2000. His biography published in Oxford's Who's Who and Marquis, Who's Who in America Law, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World .

Mr. Pitcher is a senior counsel in the Corporate Practice Group of Seyfarth Shaw’s Atlanta office, where his practice focuses primarily on municipal bond and other financing transactions. He has served as bond counsel, issuer’s counsel, underwriter’s counsel, trustee’s counsel and letter of credit bank counsel on in excess of $2 billion of municipal bond issues. Such bonds have included a variety of types of new money and refunding bond and note issues, including general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, special tax bonds, special assessment bonds, "government use" health care bonds, private activity bonds, including airport bonds, housing bonds and "qualified 501(c)(3) bonds", lease/purchase certificate of participation issues and issues including both tax exempt and taxable bonds. His experience includes (i) the use of various types of credit enhancement facilities, liquidity facilities and derivative products, including letters of credit, lines of credit, remarketing agreements, standby bond purchase agreements, reserve fund surety bonds and interest rate swaps, (ii) the use of obligated group master indenture structures for governmental and 501(c)(3) health care bond issues and the issuance of municipal options to purchase current refunding bonds to be issued at a future date. He has extensive bond validation litigation in the Georgia Superior Courts and Georgia Supreme Court and in the Florida Circuit Courts and the Florida Supreme Court. His legislative recommendations have been incorporated in the Florida Industrial Development Financing Act, the Florida Private Activity Bond Allocation Act and the Florida Taxable Bonds Act. The favorable treatment of interest on bonds for "exempt persons" under the 1954 Code and of interest on "qualified 501(c)(3) bonds" under the 1986 Code was the result of his legislative recommendations to Stanley S. Surrey of the U.S. Treasury Department in 1968. He has drafted local acts of the General Assembly of Georgia creating local authorities with bond issuing powers. He served as general counsel to the Florida Chapter of the Municipal Treasurer's Association of the United States and Canada. He served on a panel of consultants employed by the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation to advise it in connection with the establishment of a state revolving fund loan program (for local wastewater treatment facilities) to be funded with federal grants and state matching funds under the Federal Clean Water Act. His experience also includes creating and representation of a variety of non-profit and for profit corporations, corporate mergers, stock and asset acquisitions, commercial lease transactions (including synthetic leases), tax law (including tax litigation). He won the Carlson Prize awarded by NABL for the most scholarly article published in The Bond Lawyer in 2000. His biography published in Oxford's Who's Who and Marquis, Who's Who in America Law, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World .

Education

  • J.D., University of Virginia School of Law (1963)
    Order of the Coif
    Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review
  • B.A., Johns Hopkins University (1960)
    President, Xi Chapter of Delta Phi Fraternity

Admissions

  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Alabama

Courts

  • United States Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
  • U.S. Court of Claims
  • U.S. Tax Court

Affiliations

  • American College of Bond Counsel, Founding Fellow; Director 1996-2002; former Treasurer
  • National Association of Bond Lawyers (served on a panel at its annual Bond Attorneys Workshop in each year since 1981)
  • American Bar Association

Presentations

  • Served as a speaker/panelist at The Bond Attorneys Workshop sponsored by the National Association of Bond Lawyers (each year since 1981), The  Bond Attorney’s Winter Workshop sponsored by Bond Case Briefs (in several years), and at programs sponsored by The Florida League of Cities, The Florida Bar, the Alabama State Bar, the Orange County (Florida) Bar, the Department of Commerce of the State of Florida, the Florida Economic Development Council, Inc., the Public Securities Association, the Florida Chapter of the Municipal Treasurer's Association of the United States and Canada, Inc, the Florida Municipal Attorneys' Association, the Florida Association of Special Districts and the Florida School Board Association. Served on a panel with Michael Bailey (who was then  Attorney-Adviser (Tax)/Tax Law Specialist, Senior Technical Reviewer (SRT) in Branch 5, Financial Institutions and Products) and C. Willis Ritter at the University of Virginia School of Law.