Jennifer Powell Decker

April Danielson is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Municipal Law. April, who practices law in Birmingham, Alabama, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which April is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Bruce Ely’s more than 40 years of experience have allowed him to handle projects as diverse as serving on the recruiting teams that successfully induced both Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai to locate their first U.S. manufacturing plants in Alabama to representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service, the Alabama Department of Revenue and local taxing authorities. His practice focuses on three concentric areas: representing taxpayers in federal, state and local administrative and jud...

Thomas Richie represents clients in procedurally complex civil litigation, both in trial and appellate courts throughout Alabama and across the country. He has litigated a broad range of cases, from class actions to municipal tax disputes to the Chapter 9 bankruptcy case of Jefferson County, Alabama. He has been recognized as a “Rising Star” by Alabama Super Lawyers, and has had success both asserting and defending claims. Thomas has litigated cases in Alabama, Georgia, Massachuse...

Bradley J. Sklar is a shareholder in Dentons Sirote’s Birmingham, Alabama office, where he serves as Co-Leader of the Dentons Tax National Practice Group. Brad focuses on complex tax, entity, and business planning transactions, including mergers and acquisitions; sales of businesses; sale and purchase structuring and funding of large real estate transactions; raising capital; and navigation of state and local tax incentives. He counsels clients in tax and business planning and entity st...

Peter Hardin is a shareholder in Dentons Sirote’s Birmingham, Alabama office, where he is a member of the Corporate practice and leads the Dentons Sirote Venture Technology team. He regularly represents companies in a variety of complex matters, including public and private securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, financings, and trademark and copyright issues. As a trusted advisor to his business clients, Peter regularly handles a wide range of issues across various industries, ...

Preston Neel is a shareholder of Dentons Sirote in Alabama. He is a member of the Corporate practice group and advises clients across multiple industries in the areas of business and tax law, including mergers and acquisitions, tax planning, and general corporate representation. He also has extensive experience providing financial services litigation and regulatory compliance assistance to banks and nonbanks offering mortgage, unsecured small dollar, and business purpose loan products and bro...

Ralph Smith is special counsel in the Corporate Practice Group. He handles general corporate and business matters, international transactions, healthcare, higher education, and NCAA compliance. Prior to joining Jones Walker, Ralph spent 25 years in private law practice in Washington, DC, and Birmingham before joining the University of Alabama System in 2004 as general counsel and member of the Chancellor's Senior Policy staff. Ralph also served the university as a distinguished lecturer of la...

Kane is particularly active in the public education sector, where he has represented both public universities and boards of education on tax and finance matters, and he currently serves on the faculty of the University of Alabama's academy for finance training for new school superintendents and chief school financial officers. In addition to bond counsel engagements, he has served as company counsel and bank counsel in letter-of-credit backed transactions, as lender’s counsel in direct ...

R. Michael Murphy is a shareholder in Dentons Sirote’s Birmingham, Alabama office, where he serves as the chair of the Dentons Sirote Corporate practice group. Mike’s work focuses primarily on financial services, mergers, acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, regulatory, compliance and risk management. He has experience advising businesses in connection with a broad range of corporate matters, including corporate structure, formation and reorganization, contract negoti...

Rusty has extensive experience in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate and tax law. Rusty works with closely held and family businesses on business planning and taxation, including their formation, operation and sale. He is recognized as being highly knowledgeable in tax issues related to estate and succession planning, trusts and probate.