Morgan named Indy corporate counsel as Mallon moves to CIB

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett on Friday announced the appointment of Donald “Donnie” Morgan as the city’s corporation counsel, as the city’s former legal department leader departed to lead the city’s Capital Improvement Board.

The Capital Improvement Board of Managers named former Indianapolis corporation counsel Andrew “Andy” Mallon the organization’s new executive director, succeeding longtime CIB leader Barney Levengood, who announced his retirement earlier this year. The CIB owns and/or operates dozens of high-profile local facilities including the Indiana Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Victory Field and Hudnut Commons.

In his three years as the city’s corporate counsel, Mallon supervised the planning, design, financing and procurement of the $600 million Community Justice Campus project. He also served as a lead negotiator and counsel in several other high-profile real estate and economic development projects

Mallon previously spent 10 years at Drewry Simmons Vornehm LLP, representing local government agencies in areas of construction law, municipal law, administrative law,and state and local government affairs. In addition, he was director of elections for the Marion County Election Board from 2007-2009 and assistant corporation counsel for the city from 2005-2007. He got his professional start as an attorney at Locke Reynolds LLP.

Morgan joined the city’s office as chief litigation counsel in March 2016 after beginning his career as a litigator and appellate advocate at Faegre Baker Daniels. He has experience at all levels of the federal and Indiana judicial systems, ranging from trial court advocacy to work on appeals before the United States Supreme Court and the Indiana Supreme Court. He graduated from Indiana University with highest distinction and is an order of the coif graduate of the University of California Berkeley Law School. During law school, Morgan served as a judicial extern to Judge John T. Noonan on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco and later for Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland.

“In the next few years, the CIB will move forward with major construction projects and expansions at our largest facilities that will position the CIB to continue its over $1 billion annual economic impact on the state for years ahead,” CIB president Melina Kennedy said in a statement. “Andy’s experience navigating major construction projects, state and municipal finance, and government and legal matters as well as his deep roots in the city of Indianapolis and state of Indiana make him a great fit to continue the success of the CIB and the economic impact it brings to the state and city.”