Birmingham, Ala. (LAWFUEL) – David Bowsher, who previously held the position as Acting General Counsel of the United States Department of Commerce in Washington D.C., has joined Adams and Reese as Special Counsel in the firm’s Birmingham office.
Bowsher’s legal practice focuses on corporate restructuring, bankruptcy issues and mergers and acquisitions. He will also spend time in the firm’s D.C. office on governmental relations matters.
Bowsher comes to Adams and Reese from the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he served as Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel. As Acting General Counsel, Bowsher was the chief legal officer of the Department and a member of the Secretary’s Executive Management Team. While at the Department, he advised senior U.S. Government officials on providing financial assistance to distressed industries and on issues related to foreign direct investment. He also spent significant time on a wide variety of other substantive issues, including Congressional oversight and investigations, antitrust immunities available to exporters, coastal development litigation (particularly oil- and gas-related development), export control licensing and enforcement, intellectual property litigation, and Internet governance.
Before joining the Bush Administration, Bowsher was an associate in the Corporate and Bankruptcy and Commercial Departments of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, and was elected counsel prior to his departure. While at Wilmer Hale, he advised clients on corporate restructurings and mergers and acquisitions — both in and out of bankruptcy — with a focus on mid-market industrial and telecommunications companies. Additionally, he assisted high technology companies in a variety of commercial transactions, including the formation of strategic alliances, and in assembling suites of form documents (e.g., license, reseller, OEM, professional services and maintenance agreements) for use by their sales forces.
Bowsher received his bachelor of arts in English and American literature (with honors), and economics from Brown University in 1995. After teaching English at the Culver Academies in Culver, Indiana, he attended Duke University School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor for the Duke Law Journal, graduating in 1999 with his J.D. (cum laude). He also served as a judicial clerk for Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
