Marcus J. Lemon, a public-private partnership attorney, has joined Polsinelli to assist in the growth of the firm's P3 practice.
Lemon began working in Polsinelli's New York and Washington D.C. offices as a shareholder in the firm's project finance and public policy practices on March 31, he said in an interview. He brings 18 years of project finance, public-private partnership and government experience.
As traditional forms of public finance are becoming more difficult to come by and with governments struggling to keep up with the maintenance of aging transportation and social infrastructures, demand for P3s is on the rise, Lemon said in a Polsinelli press release announcing his appointment.
"There are a lot of opportunities for growth in the P3 area in the Midwest and the Northeast where the firm has its roots," he said. "I'm very excited to be working with clients in these emerging P3 areas, and to be part of a much larger and sophisticated platform that Polsinelli brings to these deals."
Lemon will focus on P3s and project finance in transportation and social infrastructure. Projects he will be working on will include plans for highways, bridges, airports, energy and water facilities.
"P3s really bring together several of my passions — construction, transportation, project finance, and public policy," Lemon said. "It's truly the intersection of all these areas, and it's a project delivery model that is finally taking off in the U.S."
Lemon left McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, an international law firm where he worked for three years as the senior counsel overlooking distressed assets.
"Polsinelli was attractive to me because it is much larger than McKenna," Lemon said. "It provides a much larger platform and depth of expertise in project finance, government affairs, real estate, and construction, all in one place."
Polsinelli has more than 710 attorneys.
Previously, Lemon was appointed as chief counsel in the Federal Highway Administration by President George W. Bush, where he oversaw highway, bridge and surface transportation projects and managed 80 attorneys and staff members nationally.
Before serving as the third-highest ranking official to the highway administration, he was state chairman of the Professionals for Bush Coalition in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Prior to that Lemon was the deputy chief of his staff and special assistant to the inspector general on President Bush's campaigns.
