Marcus J. Lemon, an infrastructure, public-private partnerships, and capital markets attorney, with more than 22 years of experience, joined Womble Bond Dickinson’s Washington, D.C. office today. Lemon is one of the few practitioners in the U.S. market with experience in transactional, regulatory, and public policy aspects of infrastructure and public-private partnerships. He is also one of the few practitioners in the U.S. who has experience representing clientele on all three sides of the deal table – developer, owner, and lender. His deal credentials include several first-of-their-kind projects in the U.S. public-private partnership market, ranging in value from $100 million to $2.5 billion in value. Lemon regularly counsels clients on both transportation and social infrastructure projects. He is also a former Chief Counsel of the Federal Highway Administration and has advised various senior officials on multiple aspects of infrastructure and public-private partnerships.

“Marc brings a highly credentialed background and extensive high-level deal experience to our Capital Markets team,” said Merrick Benn, who leads the firm’s Capital Markets Practice Group and serves on the Firm Management Committee. “In the world of public-private partnership deals, Marc’s counsel is highly sought out and we are confident that his clients will benefit from our deep bench and expertise in project finance, energy, transportation and logistics, construction, real estate, governmental regulatory, telecommunications, and bond work.”

In recent years, Lemon has served as counsel on landmark deals including the first local bridge bundling public-private partnership in Pennsylvania, the first statewide fiber optic network public-private partnership in the U.S., the first round of USDOT TIGER Grants, and the first-of-its-kind sale of a publicly-owned waste-to-energy project.

Elizabeth Lee, the firm’s D.C. Office Managing Partner noted that Lemon’s work inside the beltway is also a valuable asset.

“Marc brings a unique transactional practice to the firm and our Washington, D.C. office,” Lee said. “We welcome Marc and are eager to work with him on generating interesting and engaging client relationships.”

Two presidents have called upon Lemon for his leadership. President George W. Bush appointed Lemon to serve as Chief Counsel of the Federal Highway Administration, where he served as lead advisor to the FHWA Administrator and the Secretary of Transportation on Public-Private Partnerships and represented FHWA on the USDOT Credit Council. His efforts there included advancing the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) Program, as well as private investment at border crossings, and creation of what is now known as the Build America Bureau. Lemon also has extensive utility experience, including work on projects involving energy facilities, fiber optic and telecommunications systems. Most recently, Lemon was appointed to serve as Director of the Transportation and Infrastructure Team for the 2016 Presidential Transition and as leader of the USDOT Landing Team.

“I’ve followed Womble Bond Dickinson’s progress for some time and what the firm has accomplished recently is pretty remarkable,” Lemon said. “I was very impressed with the firm’s platform and capabilities as well. It’s clearly a firm on the rise and I’m excited to contribute to that ascent both here in the US as well as with our colleagues in the UK.”

Lemon comes to Womble Bond Dickinson from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. He holds a Doctorate in Law from Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law.

About Womble Bond Dickinson

Womble Bond Dickinson is a transatlantic law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers based in 27 UK and US office locations serving clients across every business sector. The firm provides core legal services including: Commercial, Corporate, Employment, Pensions, Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Finance, Banking, Restructuring, Insolvency, IP, Technology and Data, Private Wealth, Projects, Construction and Infrastructure, Real Estate and Regulatory Law.