John (Jay) R. Gowell is a Partner with Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara LLC and a member of the firm’s Corporate & Business, Real Estate & Commercial Lending and Nonprofit Organizations Teams. Attorney Gowell has extensive experience in the areas of corporate law, finance and real estate development in both the private and public sectors, and has represented many private developers, public agencies and corporate clients in development, permitting, construction, leasing and financing transactions and in the purchase and sale of office buildings, shopping centers, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, marinas and other real estate assets. He is a nationally recognized bond counsel, and is listed in the Bond Buyer “Red Book.” He has served as bond counsel, issuer’s counsel and underwriter’s counsel in a wide range of public bond financing transactions.

Mr. Gowell is a prominent member of the legal community. He has been honored by his peers and judges with the AV Preeminent rating from Martindale Hubbell, which is the highest rating based on both legal ability and ethics and he was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in Corporate Law. He also has been a Special Lecturer in business ethics and professional responsibility in the Providence College Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Gowell has experience in mergers and acquisitions and divestitures of companies, as well as shareholder disputes and buy-sell agreements. His comprehensive legal portfolio of work also includes corporate law, commercial lending, distressed debt and loan workouts and receiverships. He has considerable experience in the purchase and sale of companies and in syndications, venture capital transactions and securities matters, and frequently represents companies engaged in various sectors of the marine industry. Mr. Gowell also has served in leadership roles and as legal counsel for many charitable and other not-for-profit organizations.

Mr. Gowell has served as counsel to states and municipalities and their departments and agencies, including Nassau County, New York, the Governor of the State of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Department of Administration, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, the Rhode Island Public Rail Corporation, the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, and the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. In connection with his public sector work, he has provided legal counsel and strategic guidance to high visibility projects such as the lease and revitalization of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the development, ground lease and construction of Providence Place Mall and the site acquisition, financing and construction of a 400-acre office campus for a major national financial services company in Smithfield, RI. As counsel to private developers, Mr. Gowell has worked on many residential, industrial, office and hotel projects, public development and urban redevelopment projects, public-private partnerships (P3) and economic development projects. Mr. Gowell has significant experience in utilizing tax increment financing for rehabilitation of contaminated, former industrial sites into productive, economically successful land development projects.

Mr. Gowell is the Chairman of the Rhode Island Industrial Recreational Building Authority, President of the Rhode Island Sailing Foundation, Inc., and Vice Commodore of The Cruising Club of America, and is a member of the Rhode Island Sailing Events Commission, and the Board of Trustees of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. From 2005 to 2012, he was the Chairman of the East Greenwich Public Schools Building Committee, which successfully implemented a $52 million, multi-year building improvement program, including construction of a new 108,000-square foot middle school and major improvements to a high school. For 20 years, he served as a Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Music School, including as its President from 2000-2002. From 2003-2009, he chaired the Philharmonic’s Building Committee in the successful purchase, financing, redesign and extensive $8 million renovation of a 50,000-square-foot building into a nationally-recognized, state-of-the-art community music school.

Attorney Gowell earned his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review. He graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. in History. He is admitted to practice in state courts in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida and New York, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Mr. Gowell is a member of the Rhode Island Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, the Florida Bar Association, the New York Bar Association and the National Association of Bond Lawyers.