Working across jurisdictions to close deals efficiently
Butler Snow’s Public Finance, Tax Incentives and Credit Markets Group utilizes experienced attorneys from New York to Colorado to form one of the most creative and successful public finance practices in the country. We have developed decades-long relationships with many of our clients largely due to our ability to successfully and efficiently close deals—even the most complex transactions. Our attorneys work seamlessly as a team across 12 offices to provide specialized financing techniques, related tax counsel and other technical debt-structuring knowledge to our clients nationwide.
Our team of highly experienced public finance attorneys provides clients with a combination of immediate proficiency and transactional depth.
We have earned a national reputation within the subspecialty of implementing federal tax credits for qualifying projects; and we have deep experience and specialized knowledge regarding public finance borrowings, including governmental bonds, private activity bonds, housing bonds, tax credit transactions and distressed workouts. For example, our attorneys have worked together to implement creative structures, such as combining new market tax credits, opportunity zone benefits and federally tax-exempt debt.
Butler Snow’s common-sense approach to our clients’ ideas and proposals lends efficiency, and our focus on implementation brings results.
Comprehensive, diverse practice
Some examples of our client services include:
- Industrial development bonds: Closing tax-exempt and taxable bond financing for all types of projects.
- Default/workouts: Counseling in post-issuance matters involving defaults and workouts of outstanding municipal bond issues and working with governments using Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings.
- Public education: Advising public school district and charter school clients on all aspects of education financing.
- Higher education: A recognized leader in using innovative financing structures to support higher education projects throughout the country.
- Economic development: Structuring complex financing transactions in connection with a broad range of financing programs through state financing conduit issuers, local economic development authorities, and cities and counties. Also well versed in federal and state bond statutes and various economic development incentive tax and financing program statutes.
- Governmental bonds: Using innovative financing techniques as bond counsel and disclosure counsel to issuers of state and municipal bonds and obligations, as well as post-issuance continuing disclosure and post-issuance federal tax rebate compliance.
- Securities: Advising and preparing offering documents for clients with respect to compliance requirements under the state and federal securities laws associated with municipal bonds. Regularly represent investment banking firms as underwriters’ counsel.
- 103 tax services: Provide Section 103 tax counsel support and opinions in nearly every type of authorized municipal financing transaction and can navigate our clients through the myriad of tax issues to ensure compliance with the Internal Revenue Code, including Internal Revenue Service audits.
- Charter school financing: Comprehensive support in charter school financing, leveraging our extensive experience to provide innovative solutions tailored to the specific needs of each institution. We offer expert guidance on a range of financial matters, including tax-exempt and taxable bond financing, post-issuance compliance, federal and state tax credit financing and other innovative financing structures that combine tax credits, bonds and/or other benefits.
RECENT RECOGNITION
The Bond Buyer, First Half 2024 Rankings
- 6th in Southeast Region – $1,696.7 million in volume
- 1st in Mississippi – $267.0 million in volume
- 2nd in Louisiana – $202.5 million in volume
- 3rd in Colorado – $795.9 million in volume
- 4th in Georgia – $366.3 million in volume
- 5th in Alabama – $467.6 million in volume
United States Best Law Firms® Rankings, 2024
- National Tier 1 Ranking in Public Finance
LSEG (Refinitiv) National Bond Counsel Rankings, First Half of 2024
- 4th in Private Bond Counsel
- 10th in Green Disclosure
Chambers USA, 2024 Rankings
- Public Finance: Nationwide (Band 2)
- Public Finance: Colorado (Band 1)
- Public Finance: Georgia (Band 1)
- Public Finance: Louisiana (Band 2)
- Public Finance: Mississippi (Band 1)
- Banking & Finance: Tennessee (Band 3)
- “The team is highly capable across projects including roads, affordable housing and schools as well as mixed-use buildings. The firm has additional strength in the healthcare sector, regularly acting as bond counsel on transactions. Chambers USA Public Finance: Nationwide Commentary (2024)
- In addition, several of our attorneys are ranked individually for public finance in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia.
The Legal 500 US, 2024 Rankings
- Project Finance (Tier 4)
- “The firm possesses a broad range of experience and works collaboratively. More important is that they work seamlessly with in-house counsel to create a coherent team to address the legal questions or transactions. The attorneys are quite knowledgeable even down to mid-year associates. They are quite responsive to requests.’” The Legal 500 US Project Finance Commentary (2024)
Highlights
- On March 10, 2020, the Governor of the State of Colorado declared a state of emergency due to the spread of COVID-19. In order to help address the pandemic, Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSUD) agreed to allow the State to convert its hotel and hospitality learning center into a temporary medical facility to accommodate patients exposed to, diagnosed with or recovering from COVID-19. In order to convert the hotel to a medical facility, it was necessary to refund the outstanding bonds that were issued to finance the hotel. JPMorgan Chase Bank stepped up and agreed to purchase the refunding bonds from the University to facilitate the conversion of the hotel to a medical facility. Butler Snow’s public finance team served as special counsel to JPMorgan Chase Bank on this transaction that was critically important to the State and the University. The bonds were issued in less than a week from the first working group meeting to the closing, with outstanding collaboration among the University, its bond counsel, its municipal advisor, JPMorgan Chase Bank and Butler Snow. Butler Snow attorneys were instrumental in the conception and development of the MSUD hotel and hospitality learning center, so the nexus between Butler Snow and MSUD is strong; having Butler Snow at the table provided a degree of comfort for MSUD that made the project even more likely to succeed.
