Public Finance

We are consistently ranked among the top public finance practices nationally.

The Firm's public finance lawyers have extensive experience nationwide representing the full range of governmental and quasi-governmental issuers, special purpose entities, tax-exempt organizations and other entities and financial institutions, serving as:

• Bond counsel
• Underwriters’ counsel
• Disclosure counsel
• Issuer’s counsel
• Borrower’s counsel
• Bank counsel
• Special tax counsel
• Trustee’s counsel

Locke Lord’s public finance lawyers are active in many states across the country, and our clients include virtually every type of issuer in the municipal bond market, ranging from states, cities and towns to numerous other governmental entities and conduit issuers and borrowers, including educational and health care institutions and waste disposal companies. The Firm’s Public Finance Practice Group has one of the largest bond counsel practices in the country.

Each year, Locke Lord is an integral participant in hundreds of separate issues of tax-exempt bonds and notes totaling billions of dollars. This high volume of public finance work spans the full range of tax-exempt debt issues, including work with all different types of:

• Governmental issuers (from states to school districts, special independent authorities, cities, counties, transportation agencies and towns)
• Public purposes (from schools to sewers, stadiums, solid waste facilities, convention centers, commercial, industrial and manufacturing facilities, housing, hospitals, arenas, airports, colleges and charitable organizations)
• Credits and security structures (from highly rated state or university borrowers to unrated small towns or manufacturers, general, special obligation debt, traditional governmental debt, conduit and P3/project finance arrangements and credit enhancements, such as bond insurance and letters of credit)
• Debt instruments (from short-term notes to long-term bonds, fixed or variable rate interest, derivative instruments, capital leases and commercial paper programs)

We are frequently asked to draft legislation relating to the establishment of governmental entities and the issuance of their debt. Members of the Firm also play a lead role in nationally organized efforts of bond lawyers and other industry participants to stay informed about and involved with changes in federal tax law, securities law and other aspects of the issuance of public debt, including the current Vice Chair and past Chair of the Tax Exempt Financing Committee, American Bar Association, Section of Taxation and a past President of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

In recent years, the Firm has served as bond counsel to:

• Southeast Regional Finalist for The Bond Buyer’s “2019 National Deal of the Year”
• Non-Traditional Financing Finalist for The Bond Buyer’s “2017 National Deal of the Year”

The Firm also served as underwriters’ counsel to:

• Southwest Regional Finalist for The Bond Buyer’s “2017 National Deal of the Year”
• Southwest Regional Finalist for The Bond Buyer’s “2016 National Deal of the Year”