Leslie Batchelor

Leslie V. Batchelor is President and co‐founder of the Center for Economic Development Law, a law firm based in Oklahoma City that focuses primarily on public and public‐private development and redevelopment activities. Ms. Batchelor directs the firm’s litigation practice and manages a wide variety of redevelopment and financing matters. Her litigation practice focuses primarily on representing public trusts, defending taxpayer actions and other claims arising from public financing and public redevelopment activities, and handling other public law matters. Her transactional practice encompasses public‐private development projects of all types and sizes. Working closely with government entities, private developers and other interested parties, Ms. Batchelor is recognized for her expertise in public‐private partnerships, tax increment financing techniques, and other redevelopment and financing strategies. A native of Oklahoma City, Ms. Batchelor was appointed Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States in March 2000 and served in that position until her return to Oklahoma City in December 2000. Prior to that appointment, she served as Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno. From 1997 through April 1999, she served as Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, after joining the Department as a trial attorney. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Batchelor was an associate at McAfee & Taft in Oklahoma City, where she concentrated on civil litigation. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable William J. Holloway, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 1993 through 1994. Ms. Batchelor received her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Brown University and her master=s and law degrees from the University of Virginia, where she was an instructor in philosophy and a teaching assistant in legal research and writing. Ms. Batchelor is active in a number of professional and community organizations, serving in leadership roles in several, including president of Historical Preservation, Inc., and vice chair for programs for the Oklahoma District Council of the Urban Land Institute. She is a past president and currently serves on the board of directors of the Oklahoma City Housing Services Redevelopment Corporation. She also serves as vice president of Wilson Arts, Inc., a private, non‐profit education foundation, and as a trustee of the Oklahoma County Bar Foundation.