Bryant Miller Olive attorney Alan Zimmet earns prestigious IMLA Local Government Fellow designation

Bryant Miller Olive attorney Alan Zimmet has earned the prestigious Local Government Fellow designation from the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA), becoming just the third lawyer in the state of Florida to hold this designation, and the only one in the Tampa Bay area.

The IMLA Local Government Fellows Program was established to recognize attorneys as legal specialists in the field of local government law, and to encourage proficiency and competency in the field. Only 77 lawyers in the United States and Canada hold this designation.

Although Zimmet already has the highest recognition for local government lawyers awarded by the Florida Bar, the IMLA designation provided him with an opportunity to obtain additional accreditation from an international organization.

“The IMLA is specifically for municipal attorneys,” Zimmet said. “And to me, it was important to gain recognition of my expertise in municipal law by an organization dedicated solely to that type of law.”

The IMLA Local Government Fellows Program offers local governments a reliable benchmark for determining experienced and knowledgeable legal practitioners. The Program is offered to applicants who have been admitted to the bar within the past five years, with at least five years of experience in the field of local government law. Applicants must also have at least three years of experience as a municipal attorney, assistant municipal attorney, county attorney, assistant county attorney, state league counsel, or assistant state league counsel.

Zimmet has more than 30 years of legal experience, and is board certified by The Florida Bar in the area of City, County and Local Government Law. He specializes in local government law, and currently represents the cities of Largo and Safety Harbor. Zimmet is also a certified court mediator and a trained arbitrator.

For some smaller local governments, instead of having a full-time city or county attorney on staff, it makes more sense financially to hire an outside law firm to handle necessary legal matters. And for more difficult or comprehensive legal matters, such as special assessments and community development, cities and counties many times will hire an outside firm to serve as special counsel to the municipality. BMO’s firm-wide collaborative approach to problem-solving regularly incorporates legal skills and experience from its numerous practice areas, giving smaller cities and counties a level of support that can match that of larger local governments.

Mr. Zimmet’s designation will be conferred during an awards luncheon on October 6 at the IMLA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information about IMLA, visit www.imla.org.

About Bryant Miller Olive: With a distinguished 45-year history of serving its clients’ needs, Bryant Miller Olive represents governments, businesses and agencies in legal matters relating to public finance, state and local government law, complex transactions, project finance, and litigation. The firm has served as Bond Counsel on more deals than any other firm in the Southeast over the past five years, and more than any other firm in Florida over the past decade. Members of the firm are often called upon to handle some of the most complex legal issues in the boardroom and in the courtroom. The firm has offices in Tampa, Tallahassee, Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit http://www.bmo.com.