Steve Watson joined Fulbright & Jaworski's Washington, D.C. office in 2006 as a partner.  He previously had been an Attorney-Advisor and then Associate Tax Legislative Counsel in the United States Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy.  During his six-year tenure with the Treasury Department, Steve had primary responsibility for published guidance and legislative issues relating to tax-exempt bonds and the new markets tax credit.  In that capacity, he provided legal and policy analyses and recommendations to senior Treasury officials, and also drafted a broad range of published guidance.  That guidance included private activity bond regulations for refunding transactions and public power entities; arbitrage regulations governing prepayments for natural gas and electricity; regulations addressing acquisitions of tax-exempt hospitals and other organizations; regulations governing the new markets tax credit; and guidance on New York liberty bonds, single- and multi-family housing bonds, the low-income housing credit, qualified zone academy bonds, clean renewable energy bonds, and private activity bonds for solid waste disposal facilities.  As one of Treasury's key policy experts, Steve developed numerous legislative initiatives.  He worked with the U.S. Department of Energy to formulate Administration policy regarding tax issues affecting public power agencies and rural electric cooperatives as a result of electric industry restructuring.  In addition, he worked with the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop recently enacted legislation authorizing the issuance of tax-exempt private activity bonds for transportation projects.  He also worked with Congressional staff in formulating and drafting tax legislation, including the recently enacted legislation providing tax incentives for the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department in 1999, Steve was in private practice for nearly a decade, developing a major concentration in tax and public finance.  He has frequently provided tax opinions and advice to state and local governments, as well as hospitals, universities, municipal and investor-owned utilities, mass transit authorities and other issuers of tax-exempt financing.  He also has advised investment banks on underwritings of municipal debt and other financial transactions.

Steve is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including meetings of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and the American Bar Association.

1992 - LL.M. in Taxation, with distinction, Georgetown University Law Center
1989 - J.D., Georgetown University Law Center
1985 - B.A., Political Economy, Williams College

While in law school, Steve was an Associate Editor (1988-89) and a Staff Member (1987-88) on the American Criminal Law Review.  He is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia, Minnesota and New York.

Steve is an avid fly-fisherman and skier.