About Gail
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 was also named by Chambers USA in 2009 and 2010 as a “Leader in their Field.” In addition, Gail was named to the 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008 Alabama Super Lawyers. In 2011 and 2010, she was also listed as one of Alabama’s Top 25 Women Attorneys by Super Lawyers. 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.
What is your favorite thing about the law?
That you learn something different every day!
What community projects are you involved in?
I am on the Board of Directors of the Downtown YMCA and an active member of Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church.
What was your first job?
My father built the first poultry processing plant in the state of Alabama in the late 1940’s. My first job was working summers in the plant where I added chicken weights all day long, did the bills of lading for the truckers, and was sent to the very back of the plant daily to get soft drinks for the office staff— nobody wanted to walk through the plant because of the drippings that landed on you from the processing line!
What are your hobbies?
Running and exercise class; gardening; and all the fun stuff that goes with being the mother of 2 teen aged daughters!
What advice would you give to a young student in law school?
Never skip class for any reason! You have to study the materials over and over until you get the “big picture” and it “clicks” in your head.
How do you define a “good day”?
When I get to the Y at lunch to exercise.