Walters, Donald R.

Jerry Wallace was born in Corinth, Mississippi and grew up in Mississippi and Alabama where he attended public schools. He earned degrees in Urban Planning and Economics, with emphasis in Municipal Administration and Finance, from UNA. Mr. Wallace entered law school where he was an officer in the Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity, receiving the Distinguished Service Award and representing the law school in the American Bar Association Regional Trial Practice Competition. After earning the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence at Mississippi College School of Law in 1981, Mr. Wallace worked in the oil and gas industry before joining a civil litigation, school law and municipal litigation practice.

Mr. Wallace is admitted to practice before all state courts in Texas and Mississippi, including the Texas and Mississippi Supreme Courts, the Federal District Courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

Since 1983, Mr. Wallace has represented numerous school districts as general counsel and as special counsel with respect to all aspects of school law, including school administration (open meetings, open records, public purchasing, student and employment hearings, and preparation of minutes and official records); student suspension and discipline; student search and seizure; employment issues with respect to teachers and other school staff, including employment discrimination and defending sexual harassment claims; teacher termination and non-renewal; acquisition, leasing and disposal of real property; administration of trust properties; and public finance, including general obligation bonds, state aid special revenue bonds, tax anticipation notes, limited tax obligations, federal voting rights pre-clearance applications for bond referendum elections and lease purchase certificates of participation.Mr. Wallace has handled the preparation and submission of materials for rating of credits by Standard & Poors and Moody's Investor Services, rating reviews, and submissions necessary to obtain municipal bond insurance to reduce the amount of tax revenues required to service debt.

Mr. Wallace has represented school districts in cases involving the Federal Voting Rights Acts, school desegregation and public finance. In the early 1990's, Mr. Wallace successfully litigated, through the Supreme Court and federal courts, and handled the issuance of the largest general obligation school bond issue in the history of the State of Mississippi providing funding to construct new schools and renovate all existing schools in Madison County. In 1998, Mr. Wallace served as bond counsel or issuer's counsel on more than 30 state aid, limited tax and general obligation school bond issues. He developed the first program for private funding of public school athletic facilities and for joint venture private/public development of trust properties in Mississippi, funding construction of stadium improvements and generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenues from school trust property management.

Mr. Wallace is an active member of the Texas and Mississippi Association of School Boards' Council of School Attorneys and the National School Boards Association Council of School Attorneys. He is a recognized speaker at continuing legal education seminars on all aspects of school law and school finance.

Mr. Wallace represents municipalities, municipal utility commissions, and utility districts in numerous matters involving: municipal enlargement; expansion and extension of municipal and utility infrastructure (annexation and long-range fiscal effort plans for services and infrastructure); employment matters; and land use regulation, including the regulation of property uses as well as the preparation and administration of development impact fee regulations ordinances. He has worked with numerous cities to develop long-range plans for growth management, public facilities improvements, expansion of infrastructure and fiscal effort analyses.

Mr. Wallace frequently represents landowners and commercial land developers before municipal authorities requesting approval of commercial development plans, and with respect to disputes regarding the application of land use and development impact fee ordinances. Mr. Wallace is a member of the Mississippi Municipal Attorneys Association and the State and Local Government Section of the American Bar Association. He is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars and serves as a consultant on municipal annexation, extension of municipal infrastructure and development and administration of land use regulations.Mr. Wallace has served as issuer's counsel and bond counsel on all types of tax-exempt municipal bonds, including utility revenue bonds, lease purchase certificates of participation, special revenue jail bonds, tax increment financing obligations and special assessment bonds. Most recently, he served as bond counsel to the City of Jackson, Mississippi in the matter of issuance of $35 million. Mr. Wallace is listed as approved bond counsel in the Bond Buyer's Municipal Marketplace Directory (the Red Book) and is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, El Paso Bar and Mississippi Bar. An avid conservationist, Mr. Wallace is a life member of the National Wildlife Federation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Mr. Wallace has two children and is married to Andrea Wallace