May 1, 2001
On June 29, 2000, McNamee Hosea client CommerceFirst Bank, a de novo Maryland state chartered FED member bank, opened for business at 180 West Street in Annapolis, Maryland. CommerceFirst Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of CommerceFirst Bancorp which raised approximately $8.2 million of capital through an oversubscribed public offering to finance this new venture. CommerceFirst Bank is a Maryland state chartered commercial bank and a member of the Federal Reserve System. The Bank specializes in business and corporate customers. Milton D. Jernigan, II, a managing principal in McNamee Hosea, is one of the organizers of the Bank and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CommerceFirst Bancorp and of CommerceFirst Bank. Mr. Jernigan also serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Bank. McNamee Hosea, through other principals in the firm served as General Counsel to the organizing venture and now serves as general and regulatory counsel to the Bank and to the Holding Company. Mr. Jernigan previously acted as an organizer and director of Commerce Bancorp of College Park, Maryland - a successful de novo bank which was sold in December 1997 to Main Street Financial Corporation (which itself was later to sold BB&T Bank of Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1998). McNamee Hosea served as general and regulatory counsel for Commerce Bank as well and it served as the bank's general counsel in the sale transaction to MainStreet Financial Corporation.
