Since 1988, Ed Snow has dedicated his legal career to the Commercial Finance Law practice area, garnering extensive experience in transactions including accounts receivable and inventory finance, cash flow finance and joint venture finance. Currently a partner at the Atlanta office of Burr & Forman LLP, Snow is a practicing member of the firm’s Lending Practice and Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Electronic Transactions Groups.
Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2006 for Banking & Finance Law and Securitization & Structured Finance Law, Snow is currently being honored as “Lawyer of the Year” for Commercial Finance Law in Atlanta for 2024.
Of his legal career and recent recognition, Snow stated: “If sheer longevity is an accomplishment, that’s possibly a reason, more so than any particular transaction I closed recently. Also, I have been active in Georgia Bar roles for a long time and maybe this creates a presumption I’m experienced in my field. I used to run the Georgia State Bar ‘Secured Lending’ seminar, as the Georgia State Bar UCC Committee Chair, and now I run the Georgia State Bar ‘Ancient Foundations/Modern Equivalents’ seminar, which I also founded, that focuses on ethics and professionalism topics via examination of the scribes and jurists who performed lawyerly functions in antiquity. Perhaps this all keeps me in the conversation.
That said, the long-term personal relationships I’m able to form with clients are very rewarding. I still represent lenders I met and worked with in 1994 when I moved to Atlanta. I also enjoy working with attorneys on the other side of deals who are zealously adverse, yet collegial, which is the case most of the time. Finally, I enjoy mentoring associates in my firm—I learn so much from them.”
With nearly 40 years of legal experience, Snow is a former adjunct professor of contracts and contract drafting at Emory Law School in Atlanta, still frequently lecturing on lending and other legal topics. Additionally, Snow has represented banks, finance institutions, funds and borrowers including JPMorgan Chase Bank, BMO Bank,Regions Bank, Southstate Bank and United Community Bank, among many others.
“Keeping up with the evolution of commercial law can be challenging, especially vis-à-vis technological developments. I remember doing research in the late 1980s for an 80+ year old partner who said to me: ‘You might find the answer in those new statutes they call the Uniform Commercial Code.’ The UCC was adopted when he was 40+ years old; there was no hint he was joking either. The re-boot that was ‘Revised’ Article 9 of the UCC in the late 1990s was such a potential moment for me. I spent the entire year before its adoption carrying around the ABA publication of the text, reading from it several times a day and wearing off the lettering on the spine in the process. Same situation with e-signature law a few years ago right when lending markets were getting interested and before COVID when it became necessary. In practicing transactional law, I feel great lawyers not only protect their clients, but they also find creative, deal-oriented ways for both sides to get to ‘yes’” concluded Snow.
