E. Alston Ray

Partner

Alston is a partner and member of the Business & Tax Practice Group. He also heads the firm's Municipal and Public Finance Practice Team. Alston's practice involves all aspects of municipal and public finance, including service as bond counsel, underwriter's counsel, special tax counsel and counsel to financial institutions providing credit enhancement for financing by state and local governments and their boards, authorities and agencies in Alabama and other states. His practice includes financings for a wide variety of governmental purposes, including governmental operations and infrastructure, elementary, secondary and higher education, healthcare, housing, transportation, public utilities and economic and industrial development, and related economic development incentives. Alston has extensive experience in a full range of financing structures for both tax-exempt and taxable obligations, including fixed and variable rate transactions, structured financing, pool financings and the use of interest rate swaps and other financial derivative products.

Alston is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (A.B., 1970), where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was a Distinguished Naval Graduate (NROTC).

Following active duty in the United States Naval Reserve, he attended the University of Alabama School of Law (J.D., 1976), where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Alabama Law Review and was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Jasons (Senior Men’s Honorary) and the Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society.

After graduating from law school, Alston clerked for Judge Seybourn H. Lynne, United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He is a member of the Birmingham and American Bar Associations and the Alabama State Bar. He is a member of the Tax-Exempt Financing Committee of the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association and a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

Alston has also been active in the Birmingham community, previously serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Literacy Council of Central Alabama and currently as a Trustee of its Endowment Fund. He is also currently a member of the Board of Directors of Alabama Rivers Alliance. Alston is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Downtown Birmingham.

Leadership Positions

Alabama Rivers Alliance (Board of Directors, 2002 - present)
Literacy Council of Central Alabama (Board of Directors, 1994-2000; Trustee of its Endowment Fund, 2000 - present)
Best Lawyers in America 2010 edition
Best Lawyers 2008 - Public Finance

Professional Associations

American Bar Association, Tax-Exempt Financing Committee of the Section fo Taxation
Alabama State Bar Association
Birmingham Bar Association
National Association of Bond Lawyers
Kiwanis Club of Downtown Birmingham

Presentations

"Legal Fundamentals of Industrial and Economic Development Financing in Alabama," Presented to the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama and Various County and Municipal Industrial Development Boards and Authorities."