BRADENTON, Fla. — McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP has hired Earle Taylor as partner and head of public finance in the law firm’s Atlanta office.
Taylor, as well as Kenneth Pollock, John MacMaster, Joseph Krolikowski, two paralegals, and two secretaries joined McKenna’s public finance practice on Monday. All were previously in Kilpatrick Stockton LLP’s public finance practice in Atlanta.
“With the addition of this team, [McKenna] now has the premier public finance practice in the Southeast,” Wayne Bradley, chairman of the firm’s corporate department, said in a statement. Bradley also said the new additions would enhance the firm’s “level and range of services” to clients.
Taylor replaces the firm’s head of public finance, Margaret Joslin, who will retire at the end of the year. Taylor spent 18 years with Kilpatrick. He began his career at Peterson Young Self & Asselin in 1984 where he worked until Kilpatrick recruited him to run its bond practice in 1991. He obtained a bachelor’s degree at Clemson University and his law degree at Vanderbilt University.
Clients of Taylor include the state of Georgia and various state agencies, Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s Consolidated Rental Car Facility and Automated People Mover System Maintenance Facility, as well as other issuers in the state and in South Carolina.
Pollock joined McKenna as partner and has experience in all types of financing structures. MacMaster and Krolikowski joined the firm as of counsel.
MacMaster concentrates on tax planning and controversy and was an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Treasury Department where he advised on legislation and regulations related to financial instruments, including tax-exempt bonds. Krolikowski concentrates on municipal bond and other financing transactions. He also was an attorney and adviser in the Treasury, where he was responsible for tax-exempt bonds and other financial issues included in the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
The move to McKenna presented opportunities for new bond work, Taylor said in an announcement on McKenna’s Web site. The firm’s large government affairs practice, its health care bond work, and its push to develop its public-private partnership practice were draws, he added.
“We really do believe this area of public-private partnerships is going to be key going forward as state and local governments get comfortable with the concept,” Taylor said. “Municipal finance is an important element of that.”
Kilpatrick has no immediate plans to replace Taylor and his group, said the firm’s co-managing partner, Diane Prucino. The firm will not have an active public finance practice for the time being.
