Overview
Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell is well-known nationally for its skill in public finance. Our attorneys handle a multitude of public finance transactions around the nation. Our experienced and analytical public finance team works with clients in a wide range of bond transactions involving traditional and conduit financings. We combine old-fashioned, seasoned judgment with modern and sound analyses of issues, and we approach all of our public finance transactions from the big picture perspective.
We serve as bond counsel, underwriters' counsel, credit facility counsel, special counsel and issuers' counsel and have been involved in hundreds of public financing transactions raising billions of dollars. These transactions include serving as bond counsel or underwriters' counsel on general obligation and revenue bonds for governmental issuers, including school districts, public utility and transportation system authorities and housing authorities.
We also handle public financing for hospitals and other health facilities, toll roads, economic development and sports authorities, multifamily and single-family housing projects, airports, water development and treatment plants, waste disposal facilities, corrections facilities and a multitude of other facilities.
Our work for health care entities includes acting as bond counsel, underwriter's counsel, borrower's counsel and trustee's counsel in a wide range of health facilities financing transactions. These clients are primarily non-profits, but they benefit from our contacts with for-profit providers, various state and municipal agencies, investors, lenders, community development organizations, health care finance agencies, consultants, contractors, underwriters, trustees and health care industry trade associations.
We counsel issuers, underwriters and other clients regarding compliance with the continuing disclosure requirements of SEC Rule 15c2-12, other disclosure matters and arbitrage compliance. We provide counsel on bond insurance and other types of credit enhancement, interest rate swaps and other derivative products. In addition to our work as issuer’s and underwriter’s counsel, we serve as counsel to private purchasers of bonds, credit providers and trustees. As a result, our clients benefit from our ability to analyze public finance transactions from numerous perspectives and understand all sides of a deal.
A multidisciplinary approach to transactions allows us to use our vast experience in related areas like securities, lending and real estate law. Public finance attorneys work cohesively and efficiently with other members of the Locke Lord team whose experience may be critical in a public finance transaction. These transactions may involve complex issues relating to securities, health care, real estate, technology and intellectual property, environmental and even litigation avoidance matters. Our public finance attorneys coordinate with our tax, corporate, litigation and white collar crime teams to address IRS and SEC audits and provide counsel regarding strategic maintenance of records and compliance with information and document requests. In addition, our team regularly works with our affordable housing section to combine private activity bonds with low-income housing tax credits for the construction and renovation of multifamily properties.
In the project finance arena, we render issuer counsel opinions for the securitization of a variety of financial assets, including commercial mortgage loans, single-family residential mortgage loans, multifamily housing loans, power supply contracts, retail installment sales contracts, financing auto and credit card receivables and commercial loans and accounts receivable.
Our extensive project finance work has included serving as both company counsel and bond counsel in the bond financing of several Texas cogeneration power projects. We have served as underwriters’ counsel or placement agent’s counsel in a variety of transactions including financings of airports, ballparks, numerous multifamily housing projects, correctional facilities and other public/private use projects.
Many of our attorneys are listed in the Bond Buyer Red Book as national public finance authorities. Our attorneys have served as panelists at the annual conference of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and have headed up the underwriter’s counsel presentations.
Our public finance practice evolved and grew first in Texas, where our attorneys secured bond financing for Texas governmental units of all kinds, including major cities (Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and numerous smaller municipalities), housing finance authorities (Austin, Fort Carson, Houston), educational institutions (University of North Texas), health systems (Harris County, Baylor Health Care System, Metrocrest Hospital Authority), transportation authorities (North Texas Tollway Authority, Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, Austin and Houston Airport Systems) and various agencies of state government (Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation and Texas Veterans’ Housing Assistance Program). Our attorneys played a major role in many of the largest public finance issues in the state’s history.
But the scope of our public finance work has become nationwide, and our attorneys are active in many states across the nation, where we serve as counsel to borrowers, credit banks, credit enhancers, developers, investors, issuers, lenders, obligors, placement agents, purchasers, trustees and underwriters. As examples of the scope of our experience, we have handled public finance transactions for the City of New Orleans, the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority, the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation and the Tulsa Municipal Airport, among hundreds of others.