Goodwin Procter is a nationally recognized bond counsel firm. Public clients turn to us to handle the most complex financing problems, including government deficits, bond insurance downgrades, troubled asset workouts, bond defaults and IRS controversies.
For almost 20 years our public finance attorneys have served as bond counsel to the State of California. We are also members of the bond counsel pools for the City of Los Angeles, the City and County of San Francisco, and the City of San Diego. We’ve served as bond counsel and disclosure counsel for many of our municipal clients for decades.
Municipal and state clients rely on our collective expertise in various public law matters, including Brown Act compliance, charter and agency matters, tax-exemption issues, land use and zoning matters, and environmental compliance. All of the attorneys and professionals in our public finance practice are members in good standing of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.
We know every financing vehicle in use today and have structured and authored approving opinions for a variety of bond issues, including:
- General Obligation Bonds
- Revenue Bonds
- Private Activity Bonds
- Special District Bonds (including Mello-Roos and assessment district financings)
- Tax Allocation Bonds
- 501(c)(3) Bonds
- Lease and Installment Sale Obligations
- Certificates of Participation
- Marks-Roos Pooled Bonds (for both redevelopment and special district financing)
- Bond Anticipation Notes
- Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes
Due to our particularly strong expertise in complex public finance matters, we’re often called upon to serve as special issuer’s counsel. Attorneys in our practice recently served as special counsel to the California State Treasurer in connection with the State’s fiscal recovery bond strategy. We structured and documented the credit enhancement and liquidity support documentation for the State’s award-winning issuance of $10 billion in Economic Recovery Bonds. In another matter, we counseled 24 school districts in connection with an IRS audit of a tax and revenue anticipation note pool issued by the Kern County Board of Education.