Phone: (804)-915-3227
Email: afountain@hclawfirm.com
Aubrey Woolworth Fountain, III, Esquire, a native of Richmond, Virginia, is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture in 1990. He furthered his education at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, obtaining a Juris Doctor in 1994 alongside a Joint Master’s Degree in Regional Planning with a concentration in Real Estate Development in 1996. Mr. Fountain began his legal career under the guidance of prominent civil rights attorney Oliver W. Hill (of Brown vs. Board of Education fame) and Senator Henry L. Marsh, Richmond Virginia’s first black mayor. Currently, he serves as Senior Counsel with the law firm Harrell & Chambliss LLP. His primary practice areas include business and corporate law, real estate law, and institutional and secured transactions, though his experience extends to a wide array of legal fields, from litigation to tax-exempt entity formation and intellectual property.
In his role as Senior Counsel at Harrell & Chambliss, Mr. Fountain’s general practice primarily encompasses nearly all facets of business and CRESPA-certified real estate transactions. His representative clients include public and private sector corporate entities, large banking and financial institutions, municipalities, housing authorities, governmental institutions, investors, developers, REITs, churches, small businesses, sellers, purchasers, individual entrepreneurs, partnerships, and local, State, and Federal government entities. His specific areas of focus involve transactions and closings, complex negotiation and litigation, drafting, analysis, and preparation of documentation, contracts, deal structuring, investment and partnership agreements, land use law, financing, acquisitions and dispositions, and structuring investment vehicles to facilitate capital formation. His expertise in Federal Tax Law aspects of real estate transactions and partnerships includes experience in low-income housing tax credit syndication, historic tax credit transactions, affordable housing programs, and tax-related matters involving tax-exempt bonds and entities. He also has experience in federal and state multifamily housing programs such as Section 8, Section 221d, Section 202, Section 232, 1031 and 561 Exchanges, and mark-to-market legislation. His specialty practice areas involve structuring deals in bonds, tax credits, equity syndication, and financing in the federal, state, and local government and private sectors. As a transaction attorney, his practice covers most aspects of business and corporate law and entity structure, development, and transactions ranging from business trusts and corporate acquisitions and mergers to churches and tax-exempt entity formation. He also acts as a registered agent and counsel for over 400 businesses and entities. Mr. Fountain’s experience extends to a wide variety of other legal practice areas, from simple and complex civil negotiations and resolutions to will and estate planning, juvenile and domestic relations, personal injury, settlement and mediation, and numerous other transactional matters.
His legal specialty areas include counsel at all government levels, including the federal government, the Virginia Housing Development Authority, the Richmond and Petersburg Redevelopment Housing Authorities, and the City of Richmond, where he serves as Counsel for the Biotechnology Research Park and Innovation Counsel. He has provided legal representation to the federal government through Ginnie Mae in connection with its multi-billion-dollar Multiclass Securities Program related to the issuance of Ginnie Mae Guaranteed REMIC Pass-Through Securities and MX Securities. His legal representation also includes structuring land transactions for Dominion Power in eminent domain and in multi-billion-dollar Solar Farm transactions in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
In addition to his legal career, Mr. Fountain is a nationally recognized and award-winning real estate developer, having spearheaded the development of over 2,000 units in over $100 Million in real estate transactions encompassing single-family, multi-family, and commercial development. This includes the prestigious Governor’s Awards for Excellence for Outstanding Development as a director of real estate and development for the “largest tax-exempt bond transaction in the country and ever by a tax-exempt entity.”
Mr. Fountain is a current and past member of more than twenty (20) boards and professional organizations and is licensed to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. He is also in his 17th year as an Adjunct Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Graduate School of Government Affairs (teaching Legal and Legislative Foundations in Planning), serves as a special faculty lecturer at Virginia Union University’s School of Theology, and is a frequent presenter and speaker at national, state, and local levels.
