Richard Miller, a Florida-based public finance attorney who spent more than 50 years in the field, died of kidney disease on June 6. He was 78.
Mark-David Adams, a fellow attorney who worked with Miller for over 40 years, said he has been getting calls and emails from bankers and "players across the industry" about Miller's death.
"He was really loved in this community," Adams told the Bond Buyer. "He was an institution."
In 2007, Miller served as bond counsel on an Everglades restoration project for the South Florida Water Management District which
He successfully represented Escambia County in overturning the Florida Supreme Court's initial decision to invalidate most of the state's certificates of participation and community redevelopment revenue bonds, his family said in a statement.
Miller served clients in Florida, California, Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
In the statement, Miller's family said he was an avid sports fan who "liked to use sports metaphors in transactions" and "put this knowledge to good use in financings for the Miami Marlins, the Houston Astros, the Washington Nationals, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Memphis Grizzlies."
Miller graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and the University of North Carolina, according to the statement. He served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army reserves for eight years after finishing law school.
He first worked in New York, later becoming the managing partner of the Florida office of Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon. Miller then moved to Edwards & Angell, which became an office of Troutman Pepper Locke through a series of mergers.
Miller is survived by his wife and children, Adams said.
A memorial service is being planned.
