Butler Snow creates Public Policy and Strategy Team led by veteran legislator, chief of staff Charlie Williams
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Josh Huff, 601-985-4104 josh.huff@butlersnow.com
Butler Snow has created a Public Policy and Strategy Team to advise clients on public initiatives that affect their interests. Charlie Williams, a veteran legislator and recent Chief of Staff to Gov. Haley Barbour, will lead the 11-member team.
With years of government experience, the team offers clients special insight on how to manage public policy challenges. Joining Williams are two other former gubernatorial chiefs of staff: Mark Garriga, who served with former Gov. Kirk Fordice and also as a state legislator, and John Henegan, who worked for former Gov. William Winter.
The Public Policy and Strategy Team will help clients navigate the legislative and regulatory maze. Williams and his team will develop a strategy to meet a client’s public policy goals at the local, state or federal level. With bipartisan contacts, the team can be effective on both sides of the aisle. “We’ll keep clients informed about initiatives that impact them,” Williams said. “We’ll help them take advantage of opportunities, overcome hurdles, and educate decision-makers about their issues.”
Williams, from Senatobia, served in the Mississippi House of Representatives for 24 years, chairing the Ways and Means Committee for eight years. “We’re excited to have someone of Charlie Williams’ caliber leading our team,” said Don Clark, Chair of Butler Snow. “His extensive legislative and executive branch experience will benefit clients.”
In contrast to other public policy groups, representation by Butler Snow’s team can extend beyond the policy and strategy areas to legal representation, if needed.
The team’s knowledge about how government works will benefit businesses and other private-sector clients on issues ranging from economic incentives to compliance to regulations. The team is also able to advise counties or municipalities on state policy. “Whoever the client, whatever the public policy problem, we can help solve it,” Williams said.
Clark noted that the three former chiefs of staff represent significant eras in Mississippi. Henegan served with Winter during passage of the landmark Education Reform Act in 1982. Garriga served with Fordice, elected in 1992 as the state’s first Republican governor since 1874. Williams was on board during Barbour’s widely praised response to the test of Hurricane Katrina. “They’ve built solid relationships on both sides of the aisle,” Clark said. “They’ve been present when state history was being made.”
The new team will begin as part of the Public Law and Finance practice group. “We’ve always offered public policy advice to clients,” said Tommie Cardin, Practice Group Leader and member of the policy team, who practices in administrative law, election law, environmental law and government relations. “This new team lets us offer our clients enhanced strategic advice in the policymaking arena.”
In addition to Williams, Garriga, Henegan and Cardin, members of the Public Policy and Strategy Team include:
Lucien Bourgeois – served in executive branch, practices in municipal bonds, public finance, economic development incentives.
Michael Caples – a trained engineer whose practice emphasizes environmental law and government relations, has represented public utilities.
Julie Ellis – a former attorney with FedEx who practices in transportation & logistics, aviation, business planning and operations, government relations and administrative law.
Chris Espy – practices in administrative law, constitutional law, governmental litigation, public finance and product liability.
Nick Manley – practices in governmental relations, banking law, business operations and administrative law.
Leslie Scott – a former state Asst. Attorney General and attorney for City of Jackson, practices in administrative law, government relations, election law and civil rights defense.
Jason Yarbro – represents local, regional and national developers in real estate, corporate and securities and commercial lending.
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Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC, is a full-service law firm with more than 150 attorneys representing regional, national and international clients from offices in Jackson, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Memphis, and the Greater Philadelphia, PA area. For more information, visit www.butlersnow.com.
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