Vickie Buchanan is a transactional attorney who also serves as the co-leader of the firm’s Economic Development, Tax Credits and Business Incentives Group. Her work in the area of government incentives has resulted in the development of special expertise and experience in general economic development law, community development finance, and structuring private equity transactions to qualify for tax incentives, including New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs), federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits, and tax increment finance (TIF) districts.
In addition to representing real estate project sponsors, developers and investors, Vickie serves as lead counsel to two Oklahoma-based community development entities (CDE) with New Markets Tax Credit authority.
Vickie has played a key role in a significant number of high-profile commercial projects throughout the region. Notable projects include: NMTC financing of Embassy Suites Oklahoma City Downtown/Medical Center, tax credit financing of the new home of the Oklahoma City University School near downtown Oklahoma City, and creation of new TIF district in Garfield County, Oklahoma, for a $1.2 billion expansion project.
As part of her transactional practice, Vickie also advises and represents public and private companies in all phases of their business existence, commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, real estate projects, entity formation and organization, contracts, business restructuring, and day-to-day counseling.
Vickie’s career experience includes representing and advising Native American tribes on various tribal and non-tribal legal and business matters. She has represented tribes in numerous real estate transactions, acquisitions and mergers, private equity investments and other investments, and in matters involving governance, property transfers from fee-to-trust land, and tax. She has also assisted tribes with the diversification of tribal resources and business lines, and with wholly-owned tribal subsidiaries on organizational and corporate governance matters.
Vickie is also an AV-rated lawyer who has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants in state, federal and tribal courts. She has extensive experience as a trial lawyer handling a broad range of commercial litigation and arbitration. Her experience includes representing public and private companies in complex business cases, eminent domain cases, class action and multiple-party lawsuits, and disputes involving oil and gas, environmental, real estate, banking and securities, insurance, products liability and mass torts. Her litigation clients have included major U.S. energy companies, corporations, manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, financial institutions and investment firms.
Vickie’s achievements as a transactions lawyer have earned her inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (corporate law). In 2012, she was recognized as the “Attorney of the Year” by the Central Oklahoma Association of Legal Assistants for her ongoing efforts in supporting the paralegal profession.
Vickie earned a bachelor’s degree in English and criminal justice from Northeastern State University and a Juris Doctor, with distinction, from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. While pursuing her law degree, she studied at Queen’s College in Oxford, England, for one summer, worked as an intern for the Juvenile Division of the Oklahoma City Public Defender’s Office, and clerked at law firms during the school year focusing on corporate practice.
Prior to joining McAfee & Taft in 2007, Vickie was a partner and director at another law firm in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.