Firm Attorney Mike Lockaby attended the annual NABL Workshop held September 11-13, 2019, in Chicago, IL. The Workshop was a three-day seminar for CLE credit hosted by the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL), the premier organization of public finance lawyers in the U.S. This year, over 600 lawyers attended from all over the country. Mike is a member of NABL and edited the chapter of the Local Government Attorneys Handbook on Public Finance, whose primary author is Richmond attorney, Arthur Anderson.
Mike’s colleague Jeremy Carroll stated, “We’re asked more and more by clients to advise them on municipal bonds, special tax districts, and public finance across the board. I’m glad Mike could attend the Workshop. I look forward to going over the conference materials closely.” Jeremy continued, “I’ve worked with these issues for years, and the best way to stay current on best practices is to learn from experts from across the country.”
Mike attended sessions focusing on public-private partnerships (P3s or PPEAs), private activity bonds (PABs), IRS non-arbitrage rules, and the ethics of providing issuers’ opinions and tax opinions on municipal bond issues. He notes, “As we represent more clients with major public finance issues, and as our existing clients try to use more private-sector expertise and leverage private capital to achieve public goals, expertise in municipal financing is essential for a local government firm. I benefited a great deal from hearing what attorneys working on billion-dollar projects think about when they’re doing a bond issue or a P3. I can apply that knowledge and integrate some of the latest financing developments and tools into my client projects in Virginia.”
Tax-exempt municipal bonds are frequently used to finance infrastructure for local government in Virginia, including schools, roads, parks, solid waste facilities and landfills, water and sewer systems and plants, parks, and other community facilities and economic development projects. In these transactions, it is extremely important that legal counsel is familiar with the intimate details of Virginia local government law and with the principles of the municipal bond exemption from federal income taxation. Failing to follow all of the rules carefully can present huge (and expensive) problems for local governments. GWCL attorneys have expertise in the specific procedures in Virginia law, and advise clients on IRS rules for private activity bonds and in arbitrage situations.
Public-private partnerships are a flexible procurement and public service delivery vehicle that are allowed in Virginia. They are increasingly used to leverage private-sector expertise in massive projects, as well as create situations in which a mixture of private and public capital makes a project possible, and gives a private partner both the risk and incentive to make it work. GWCL attorneys have worked on several PPEAs in Virginia to provide all types of infrastructure, such as broadband, as well as on economic development projects.
Mike attended the conference “because at the end of the day, nothing gives me more professional satisfaction than knowing that people drink from a water system I worked on as the project counsel, or kids do their homework on an internet system that I helped expand, or people work at a facility where I helped negotiate its performance agreements and private activity financing.” Jeremy added, “For excitement, there’s nothing like a trial, but for long-term satisfaction, we are pleased to do more work in public finance and see the benefits it brings to communities. By expanding our services in this area, it provides our current clients with more substantive legal guidance regarding their financing needs, and creates the opportunity to develop new client relationships.”
Mike Lockaby, Jeremy Carroll and Mark Popovich are available to help clients with public finance issues. They can assist with public-private partnerships, PPEAs, general obligation bonds, infrastructure projects, revenue bonds, private activity bonds, economic development performance agreements, redevelopment projects, special taxing districts, and other creative ways of financing and delivering facilities for Virginia local governments.
To contact them, please email: Mike Lockaby, Jeremy Carroll, Mark Popovich