Russ Miller is a Member in the firm's Public Finance Group in the Nashville office. His practice is devoted primarily to tax-exempt finance where he regularly represents financial institutions, governmental entities and nonprofit corporations in a variety of financing transactions, which include:
- Serving as bond counsel and/or borrower's counsel on numerous financings for 501(c)(3) borrowers, including hospitals, educational institutions and service organizations
- Representing financial institutions as underwriter's counsel and bank counsel in connection with both governmental and private activity bond issues
- Serving as bond counsel on general obligation bond issues and water, sewer, gas and electric revenue bond issues for municipalities and utility districts across Tennessee
- Serving as counsel to energy acquisition corporations on a variety of legal matters, including natural gas prepay transactions
- Representing governmental entities and businesses in connection with various economic development incentives, including tax abatements, tax increment financings and the issuance of industrial development bonds
He has also represented clients in the purchase, sale and leasing of commercial real estate having worked for three years in the firm’s Commercial Transactions and Real Estate Group.
Russ regularly speaks on a variety of public finance topics, including recent presentations to the Tennessee Gas Association regarding the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act and to the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants on disclosure issues in municipal bond offerings. He has served on the faculty for the National Association of Bond Lawyers, Fundamentals Conference since 2009, teaching seminars on credit enhancement, basic structuring of bond deals and financial aspects of tax-exempt financings.
He also teaches a course each fall semester on professionalism and ethics to first-year students at Vanderbilt Law School and assists the administration in the continued development of the course.
Russ graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a B.S. in political science. In 2002, he received his law degree from the Vanderbilt School of Law where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. While in law school, Russ served as notes development editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and as a legal writing teacher's assistant. He received the Myron Penn Laughlin Award for his student note, "The Twenty-First Amendment and State Laws Against the Direct Shipment of Alcoholic Beverages," 54 Vanderbilt Law Review 2495.
Prior to joining the firm, Russ was a judicial clerk for Judge Michael Kanne on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. He also worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana.
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