We have provided comprehensive legal services to participants in public finance transactions for more than 30 years. We have acted as counsel to numerous issuers, underwriters, bank direct purchasers of bonds, credit and liquidity providers, trustees, and conduit borrowers. We have also served as bond counsel to various state, regional and local governments; economic development, and other authorities and commissions; and various institutions.
Our clients rely on us to analyze the tax, arbitrage, securities and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations relating to their bond transactions. We routinely provide advice on the use of letters of credit, liquidity facilities, direct purchase bonds, bond insurance, tax credits, guaranteed investment contracts, forward commitments, swaps, and other derivative products.
We have extensive knowledge of matters that include fixed- and variable-rate bonds, tax-exempt and taxable bonds, new money and refunding issues, general obligation bonds, revenue bonds (including those secured by sales or other special taxes), working capital issues, private activity bonds, and municipal leasing. We have experience financing projects involving transportation; utilities; housing; primary, secondary and higher educational institutions; solid waste disposal; health care; senior housing and skilled nursing facilities; 501(c)(3) organizations; and commercial uses. Our diverse financing experience and substantive industry knowledge enable us to anticipate problems and to propose solutions tailored to the specific needs of the client and the transaction at hand.
We advise clients in several core areas:
Banks often play an important role in the successful structuring of a public finance transaction. We routinely represent national, regional and community banks as the direct purchasers of municipal bonds and as the issuers of letters of credit or liquidity facilities to secure municipal bond issues.
We regularly represent banks in transactions involving governmental, nonprofit and for-profit borrowers. Our experience with nonprofit borrowers has included major health care systems, continuing care retirement communities, institutions of higher education, and high-profile foundations and charitable organizations.
We have served as bond counsel to the Commonwealth of Virginia, state agencies and institutions, cities, counties, towns, public service authorities, redevelopment and housing authorities, industrial development authorities, and various regional authorities and commissions. We have advised clients on projects financed through the following tax-exempt and taxable methods, among others:
We have represented state authorities, local industrial and economic development authorities, and other authorities and commissions in Virginia in connection with such bond issuances.
We have served as counsel to banks acting as bond trustee for governmental and private activity bond issues, as well as for the issuance of corporate debt pursuant to indentures subject to the Trust Indenture Act. We have considerable experience with master trust indenture arrangements, certificates of participation, senior and subordinate indebtedness, and other complicated structures.
In a publicly sold municipal bond issue, the underwriter, with assistance from counsel, must ensure compliance with a complex set of federal and state securities laws and regulations. The underwriter must also conform to the rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and exercise appropriate due diligence in developing the disclosure materials used to market the bond issue. Our public finance attorneys have the experience and knowledge required to help guide clients through this complex process.
Our attorneys have represented regional and national underwriters in connection with the issuance of all types of bonds, including governmental bonds, private activity bonds, and 501(c)(3) bonds. Notably, we served as underwriter’s counsel for Virginia’s $1.1 billion securitization of payments under the tobacco master settlement agreement, and in 2009 served as underwriter’s counsel in one of the first taxable “Build America Bond” issues done in Virginia under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Bank Counsel
Bond Counsel
Issuer's Counsel
Trustee’s Counsel
Underwriter's Counsel