Gail has been in practice for twenty-five years, with a focus on various commercial real estate transactions. She has significant experience in representing various banks and institutional lenders in retail, health care, multi-family, office, and industrial loan transactions, commercial foreclosures, workouts and restructures of defaulted real estate loans. Her loan work practice has included transactions in many states, including Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado, New York, and Washington. In the 1990s, she worked extensively on health care "conduit" loans, which typically involved multiple properties in one or more states, and which entailed working closely with rating agencies in preparation for securitization of these loans.
She has been the lead attorney for the development of numerous types of commercial properties, from mixed-use commercial development to residential student housing. She has represented clients in the purchase and sale of many commercial properties, including the sale of numerous "power" retail shopping centers across the country for a national retail developer, as well as the purchase of the former HealthSouth Corporate Campus by a Birmingham based real estate development company. She has also served as the Firm's lead in their role as an attorney agent for Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation.
Gail has worked as the lead attorney in several municipal incentive transactions for the development of commercial properties throughout the State of Alabama. In each of these transactions, she worked closely with the Mayor and City Councils in finalizing various development and incentive agreements.
Her experience also includes representation of a national residential homebuilder in the development of residential subdivisions and she has extensive experience in contract negotiations, title and survey reviews and other standard due diligence, and preparation of residential restrictive covenants.
Gail was admitted to the American College of Real Estate Lawyers in 2003 (she is the only woman member of ACREL from the State of Alabama). She has been listed as one of The Best Lawyers in America since 2002 and has been listed in Chambers USA America's Leading Business Lawyers since 2005. She has also been named by Chambers USA as a "Leader in their Field" since 2009. Since 2008, Gail has been named in Alabama Super Lawyers in the area of Real Estate, including being listed as one of Alabama's Top 25 Women Attorneys in 2010 and 2011. She is also one of three lawyers from Burr & Forman LLP who were named in the 2007 LawDragon 500 Dealmakers magazine that lists U.S. lawyers who handle headline-making transactions.
Gail taught a commercial real estate transaction class as an adjunct professor, at the University of Alabama School of Law in the spring of 2008.
Gail received her J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1985, where she was a member of the Alabama Law Review. She graduated magna cum laude from Birmingham-Southern College in 1982.
Memberships & Bar Associations
American Bar Association Member, Real Property, Probate and Trust Section
Alabama State Bar
Birmingham Bar Association