Dan McRae is a partner in the Atlanta office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a national law firm (this website is personal to Dan, however, not the law firm). Dan leads the Finance Team that handles the financing of private and public projects. Dan has handled finance and investment transactions amounting to billions of dollars.

He received the first ever “Bond Counsel of the Year” award from the largest issuer of revenue bonds in the State of Georgia.

Dan is known for his expertise in finance and incentives, and is frequently retained by companies or communities to help them obtain successful project locations.

A PILOT bond transaction (the Monroe County/IDI industrial park project) that Mr. McRae structured and closed received one of the first ever “Deal of the Year” awards from the Georgia Economic Developers Association. In 2010, GEDA gave the “Deal of the Year” award for the most outstanding regional project to another project handled by Mr. McRae (the Grady County, Thomas County/Turner Furniture Company of Tallahassee, Inc. project). Two other projects handled by Mr. McRae were nominated for other GEDA “Deal of the Year” awards that year- the Range Fuels cellulosic ethanol project in Treutlen County for most outstanding rural project; and the 1075 Peachtree vertical mixed-use development in Fulton County for the most outstanding metro project.

The prior year, GEDA gave the “Deal of the Year” award to two of Mr. McRae’s projects, one for the most outstanding regional project (the City of Columbus, Fayette County, Gwinnett County/NCR headquarters relocation and manufacturing projects), the other for the most outstanding rural project (the Toombs County/Chicken of the Sea food processing project).

Also that year, ULI gave one of Mr. McRae’s Atlanta mixed-use projects (3344 Peachtree/Sovereign, a Regent Partners office/commercial development in Buckhead) its top award--the Urban Land Institute Atlanta District Council’s “Project of the Year.”

Dan’s Finance Team obtained for a business locating its headquarters to Georgia the first ever qualification for the Mega Project Tax Credit. His work with communities includes obtaining a difficult Opportunity Zone designation for a site for a new manufacturing plant for a foreign industry.

Mr. McRae was the first practicing attorney to be elected a director of the Georgia Economic Developers Association. He is a recipient of the Rip Wiley Award, GEDA’s highest award for achievement in economic development. Mr. McRae is now serving his second tour as the Chair of GEDA’s Public Policy Committee. In 2009, he received GEDA’s “Zell Miller Public Policy Leadership Award,” for highest achievement in the field of economic development policy. He is the only person ever to have won both the Rip Wiley and Zell Miller awards.

“Southern Business & Development” magazine ranked Dan’s firm among the top “Law Firms that Understand Economic Development”, referring to Dan as an “economic development legal guru.”

Mr. McRae has helped members of Georgia’s general assembly draft economic development legislation that has become law in the State of Georgia. Dan is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, and is listed in the “Red Book” directory of nationally recognized bond lawyers. He represents a number of public authorities that issue bonds in Georgia, and is one of few attorneys in Georgia to have closed a variety of synthetic lease and bondable lease financings. He is also active in such real estate industry associations as ULI, ICSC and NAIOP.

Dan is a faculty member for the University of Georgia’s Fanning Institute, which trains members of development authorities, hospital authorities and other local authorities. Mr. McRae helped the Fanning Institute initiate its training programs 10 years ago, and recently helped the Fanning Institute redesign and modernize the program. Recent subjects he has taught include: “Emerging Issues for Development Authorities,” “The MOU/LOI - Importance and Value,” “Ethics, Liabilities, Conflicts of Interest, Open Meetings, and Open Records,” “Survey of Authorities and Their Powers,” “How to Write Good Development Agreements and Review of Regional Case Studies,” and “Intergovernmental Relations and Intergovernmental Agreements,” as well as “Development Financing & The Art of Making the Deal.” Examples of other presentations by Dan include “Project Finance for Economic Development” (in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2010 to the Cornerstone Regional Economic Development Forum), “Project Finance” at the Rural Economic Development Summit (in St. Augustine, Florida, in February 2011), and “Industrial Bonds” at the Biomass Trade & Power Americas Conference (in Atlanta, February 2011).

Mr. McRae also does workshops for individual communities for which board member training credit is awarded, including presentations on “Development Authorities 101,” “Bonds 101,” “What Development Authorities Can and Cannot Do,” and “Development Authorities - How to Make the Most Out of This Economic Development Resource.” He has presented for the
American Bar Association, the National Association of Bond Lawyers, the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, and various other colleges and universities. Dan presents at each biennial “Economic Development Law in Georgia” conference sponsored by, among others, the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia, most recently on “Project Finance.”

He has been a speaker at programs sponsored by such influential organizations as ICSC, the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), NAIOP, and the Institute for Professionals in Taxation (IPT). Dan is a member of the Bank Counsel Section of the Georgia Bankers Association, and is an Associate Member of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and the Georgia Municipal Association.

Dan publishes Quick Takes, a newsletter on finance, economic development and other topics. He also makes available a series of White Papers on topics of interest in the fields of finance, investment and economic development.

Mr. McRae has served as an officer in the U.S Navy, and was a member of the Local Redevelopment Agency for NAS Atlanta, giving him personal redevelopment experience from the perspective of the local public body.

Dan received his undergraduate degree and his law degree (with distinction) from Emory University. At Emory, Dan was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and to the equivalent in law school, which is the “Order of the Coif.”