Balch & Bingham Selected as Best Economic Development Law Firm

Balch & Bingham LLP has again been selected as one of the Best Economic Development Law Firms by Birmingham-based Southern Business & Development Magazine and The Randle Report (www.RandleReport.com), an online site focusing on business and industrial recruitment in the American South.

SB&D surveyed the South’s economic development community across 14 states, seeking the ‘the best’ subject matter experts in a variety of professional services and skill sets for job growth, economic development & expansion as well as corporate relocations.

 

In a similar survey in 2009, Balch & Bingham was picked as the top law firm in Alabama for understanding economic development, and this year the firm has again received the honor.

 

On August 15, 2011, The Randle Report will publish its special section with the survey results, “Trade Allies:  The Best Economic Development Law Firms in the South.”  Three firms have been selected in each state as ranking “Best,” and will appear listed in alphabetic order.

 

“We do this work to grow our job base, and expand employment in Alabama and surrounding communities as well as neighboring southern states, not to win attention or honors, but it is nice to be recognized for efforts which have perhaps never been quite as critical for the turn around of our economy,” said Alex Leath, the lead partner in Balch & Bingham’s Economic Development Practice Group.

 

Leath was a critical player and later legal counsel to Volkswagen during their subsequent construction of a nearly $1-billion plant near the northeast Alabama border with Tennessee near Chattanooga.  Leath is also the published author of a rare guest byline in Southern Business & Development Magazine, entitled, “Economic Development Matters…Now More Than Ever.”