Tray Hairston – Land Title Association of Mississippi

Tray Hairston, CEcD, Esq., is a partner at Butler Snow LLP. Tray concentrates on public finance and economic development matters, including all types of municipal bond issues, serving as bond counsel for taxable and tax-exempt financings throughout the country. He has served as bond counsel, lender’s counsel and underwriter’s counsel for various cities, counties and financial institutions and worked on more than $2 billion in transactions. One of Tray’s seminal legal publications is The Future of Economic Development, 35 Miss. C.L. Rev. 370 (2017).

Before joining Butler Snow, Tray served as Counsel and Economic Development Advisor to Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. Tray is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) through the International Economic Development Council. In his role as a CEcD, Tray provides economic development consulting advice to communities and site selection consulting to companies throughout the U.S. Tray has been recognized by Mid-South Super Lawyers® for Government Finance (2016-2023), Mississippi College School of Law as Young Lawyer of the Year (2013), and Mississippi Business Journal as one of its Top 40 under 40 (2012–2013). In addition,The Bond Buyer publication recognized Tray as one of the 28 “Rising Stars” within the public finance field throughout the country. Tray was also named to Southern Business & Development’s Under 50 Economic Developers to Watch in its Summer 2024 edition. In addition, Tray recently participated in the Harvard University Kennedy School’s Effective Leadership Across Sectors Program, a leadership training program designed and led by Harvard faculty consisting of an advanced education opportunity offered exclusively to Delta Leadership Institute (“DLI”) alumni, who are members of the Delta Leadership Network – a post-DLI community of nearly 700 community leaders representing public, private and nonprofit sectors from across the Delta Regional Authority’s eight-state region.

Tray is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, International Economic Development Council, Southern Economic Development Council and Mississippi Bar Association. He is also on the International Economic Development Council Board of Directors. He received his undergraduate degree from Tougaloo College, his MBA from Belhaven College, and his Juris Doctor from the Mississippi College School of Law.