Butler Snow is pleased to announce that attorney Tray Hairston has been named a finalist for Law.com’s “Best Mentor of the Year” award as part of The American Lawyer Industry Awards.
The award recognizes attorneys who demonstrate exceptional commitment to developing the next generation of legal talent through mentorship, leadership and professional guidance. The awards ceremony will be held November 12, 2026, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
The nomination was submitted by Butler Snow attorney Charity Karanja, a mentee of Hairston whose accomplishments have earned national recognition within the legal profession. “The strongest endorsement any mentor can receive is a nomination from the person he mentored,” said Christopher R. Maddux, chair of Butler Snow LLP. “Charity’s success speaks for itself, and Tray’s willingness to share his expertise and his relationships helped make it possible. That is exactly the kind of leadership we want defining our culture and this firm.”
“I am deeply honored by this recognition, particularly because it came from Charity,” said Tray Hairston. “Watching her build her career has been one of the greatest privileges of my professional life. When Charity told me early on in her practice she wanted to learn Section 103 Tax Law, I knew it would take more than just encouragement. Being a bond lawyer is one thing, but developing the skillset required for complicated tax-exempt bond deals is another. It is a highly specialized craft. As her mentor, my job was to open doors, so I asked our firm’s senior tax lawyers to bring her into that work. Today she sits on our public finance group’s Section 103 Tax Committee and conducts tax diligence on large, complicated bond deals. She is also handling a complex tax audit, and she was recently accepted into the American Bar Association’s Loretta Collins Argrett Tax Law Fellowship Program, a three-year program open to only five lawyers a year with a demonstrated commitment to the tax bar. Her success is a reminder of what I believe about mentorship: it is not a transaction; it is a form of servant leadership. It means opening doors, sharing expertise freely (not hoarding work) and making time for people even when the calendar says there is none to give.”
Hairston and Karanja share a unique distinction within the firm as the only two Butler Snow attorneys to be recognized as The Bond Buyer “Rising Stars”, with Hairston receiving the honor in 2018 and Karanja earning the distinction in 2025. Hairston and Karanja also recently co-authored an article in The Bond Buyer, a century-old United States daily national trade newspaper based in New York City focused on covering the municipal bond industry, titled “How Public Finance Can Prepare For the AI Data Center Boom.” Karanja was also recently named to Bloomberg Law’s They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40, where she was the only Mississippi attorney and only associate in the country on the list.
“The accomplishments Charity has achieved speak for themselves,” Hairston said. “Seeing her earn national recognition and continuing to excel in her career makes me incredibly proud.”
Tray Hairston
Tray Hairston is a member of the firm’s Public Finance, Tax Incentives & Credit Markets group and concentrates his practice on public finance and economic development matters. He has served as bond counsel for various cities and counties and as incentive counsel to developers and companies working on transactions totaling more than $3 billion.
Before joining Butler Snow, Hairston served as counsel and economic development policy advisor to Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. He was also a member of the Business Development Division at the Mississippi Development Authority, where he provided project management assistance to companies and consultants looking to locate new businesses in Mississippi. Hairston regularly publishes scholarly legal articles. One of his seminal papers is titled “The Future of Economic Development, 35 Miss. C.L. Rev. 370 (2017)”. The Bond Buyer also recognized Hairston as a Rising Star. The publication’s Rising Stars program honors 28 municipal finance professionals under 40 nationwide whose leadership, collaborative spirit, and innovative work with issuers have positively impacted their communities.
Hairston is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) through the International Economic Development Council. In his role as a CEcD, Hairston provides economic development consulting advice to communities and site selection consulting to companies throughout the U.S. Hairston has been recognized by Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (Public Finance), BL Rankings, The Best Lawyers in America® for Economic Development Law in both 2025 and 2026, Thomson Reuters Mid-South Super Lawyers® for Government Finance (2016-2021), 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). Hairston was also named to Southern Business & Development’s Under 50 Economic Developers to Watch. In addition, he 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.
Hairston is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers where he was recognized nationally, the International Economic Development Council, the Southern Economic Development Council and the Mississippi Bar Association. He is also a member of the board of directors of the International Economic Development Council and the digital news platform Deep South Today. In addition, Hairston is a member of the Tougaloo College Board of Trustees. He received his undergraduate degree from Tougaloo College, his MBA from Belhaven University, and his Juris Doctor from the Mississippi College School of Law.
