Kathryn Knudson co-chairs the Firm's Financial Institutions practice group, which represents banks, thrifts, insurance companies and securities firms nationwide. She concentrates in financial institution and securities law with emphasis on the regulation and structure of financial institutions and financial services companies.

Ms. Knudson organizes de novo banks, their holding companies and their non-bank affiliates and subsidiaries. She advises financial institutions on raising capital, annual and quarterly reporting requirements, conversion to Subchapter S tax status and "going private" transactions. She also structures and negotiates the purchase and sale of financial institutions, their non-bank affiliates, their branches and their other assets.

Ms. Knudson counsels officers and directors of financial institutions on corporate governance matters, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, regulatory issues generally and strategies for dealing with dissident shareholders.

Ms. Knudson advises financial institutions and their management teams on a wide variety of securities law issues, including public and private offerings, proxy solicitations, periodic reporting requirements, disclosure obligations, insider trading and corporate governance.

Ms. Knudson has been selected for the 2007 and 2008 editions of Best Lawyers in America for Financial Institutions and Banking Law and is one of a distinguished group of attorneys who have been listed in Best Lawyers for ten years or longer. She has also been recognized by Atlanta Magazine as a Georgia Super Lawyer since 2004.