Gerald L Pouncey Jr

Practice Areas

Gerald is Senior Counsel at Taft. Before its merger with Taft, he was the Chairman of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. His primary focus is the acquisition, disposition, and/or redevelopment of properties with significant environmental impact (including state and federal superfund sites), mergers, investments, economic incentives, and financing related to such properties, as well as the development and implementation of green energy technologies and strategies. He lectures nationally on these topics.

Gerald has led efforts in the permitting, financing, acquisition, redevelopment and regulatory closure of hundreds of industrial properties, mines and landfills throughout the United States including a former wood treating facility in South Florida, a former airplane manufacturing facility in New York, former Department of Defense facilities, several former automobile assembly facilities across the country, a former granite mine in Maryland, a former chrome ore smelting facility in South Carolina, a former oil field in California and numerous other similar projects. Among these projects is the Atlantic Station Redevelopment in Atlanta, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized as the nation’s best Brownfield redevelopment.

Gerald has also led efforts to expand and redevelop port facilities across the East and Gulf Coasts, including Norfolk, Va., Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga., Jacksonville, Fla, Tampa, Fla., and Mobile, Ala, among other cities. He has also developed, negotiated, and implemented various financial incentives that enable these projects to take place. He has served as lead negotiator for industry (both foreign and domestic) considering locating in the Southeast. Mr. Pouncey’s practice also encompasses all facets of the design, development, and construction of sustainable buildings and renewable energy facilities, including various LEED-certified developments.

Gerald served as a legislative appointee to the commission tasked with reviewing the reauthorization of Georgia’s Hazardous Waste Trust Fund. As part of this legislative committee, he was the principal author of Georgia’s Brownfield legislation. Gerald is the past chairman of the board of directors for the Council for Quality Growth, the Georgia Brownfield Association, the Walker School and Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society. He is a board member of the North Georgia and Metropolitan Atlanta Water Management District and a past board member of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the Georgia Conservancy. He recently completed his term as chair of the National Environmental and Land Use Policy Committee of the International Council of Shopping Centers. Gerald is a contributing author to the American Bar Association publication “Brownfields: A Comprehensive Guide to Redeveloping Contaminated Property.”​

Gerald earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Auburn University and a law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. Gerald was a law clerk to Judge James C. Hill of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.