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Public Finance

Overview

Parker Poe's Public Finance Practice Group provides its clients with a broad and deep level of experience and can react quickly and thoughtfully to each client's needs. With more than 12 lawyers in the group, experience representing both issuers and financial institutions, and a dedicated public finance tax partner, Parker Poe provides clients with responsive, thoughtful guidance as they navigate today's complicated municipal bond market.

We combine the talent and experience of national bond firms with our extensive knowledge of local issues. And as an integral part of a full-service firm, we can bring the resources of the entire firm to bear on any particular legal issue. Our areas of focus include financings for governmental, higher education, and charitable organizations, as well as tax compliance and IRS audits.

Highlights of Our Public Finance Team

  • National ranking by Best Lawyers for seven straight years.
  • Top five ranking by The Bond Buyer in 2023 based on our volume of deals in North Carolina and South Carolina.
  • Three Fellows in the American College of Bond Counsel.
  • Lawyers have served on the board of directors of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and regularly lead discussions at NABL conferences.
  • Lawyers recognized in Chambers USA and Best Lawyers.

Innovative Approach

Our team has pioneered a variety of innovating financing structures to help meet the ever-changing needs of our clients. Examples include:

  • First unenhanced tax increment financing completed in North Carolina.
  • First county tax increment financing in South Carolina.
  • First bond financing for a North Carolina charter school.
  • First commercial paper financing for governmental units in North Carolina.
  • First installment purchase revenue bond financing for a school district in South Carolina.
  • First financing for a solid waste authority under North Carolina legislation allowing counties to create solid waste authorities.

Areas of Focus

Government Financings

Government financings are our bread and butter. We have served as bond counsel for the State of North Carolina, special tax counsel to the State of South Carolina, and bond counsel for hundreds of local governments throughout our geographic footprint.

Higher Education

We are bond counsel for 14 of the 16 universities in the University of North Carolina system and many private colleges and universities. Our clients include research universities, nationally ranked liberal arts colleges, and regional colleges and universities. As with our other focus areas, we work with banks and underwriters on public offerings and other finance transactions for institutions of higher education. For example, we have served as underwriter's counsel on deals involving Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Catholic University and as dealer's counsel on deals involving Vanderbilt University. 

Charitable Organizations

In addition to our work for nonprofit health care providers and institutions of higher education, we work with other charitable organizations, including 501(c)(3) low-income and senior housing facilities, private secondary schools, charter schools, YMCAs, and museums. We represent those organizations as well as the bankers and underwriters who form part of their financing teams.

Tax Compliance & IRS Audits

As one of the only firms in the Southeast with a local partner who focuses solely on tax aspects of tax-exempt and other tax-advantaged financings, we are uniquely positioned to provide sophisticated tax advice to our clients. All our clients benefit from our tax experience, regardless of the size of their transaction or its complexity.

Our tax work includes analysis and consultation on transactions involving various creative structures such as new markets tax credits. In addition to our transaction-based work, we have defended numerous audits of tax-exempt bonds and tax credit bonds before the Internal Revenue Service. We also serve as special counsel to issuers such as the State of South Carolina.

Representative Experience

  • Served as bond counsel or underwriter's counsel in all types of financings for the cities of Raleigh, Greensboro, and Durham, North Carolina, as well as that state's two largest counties and many others.
  • Served as bond counsel in a complex, $77 million financing resulting in the rehabilitation of hundreds of affordable housing units throughout South Carolina. 
  • Served as bond counsel to the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) on over $144 million in revenue bond financings for multifamily housing, including collateralized revenue bonds.
  • Served as bond counsel for the City of Charlotte in a $300 million, three series revenue bond financing and refinancing of projects at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and wrote an amended and restated master bond document for its Airport Revenue Bonds (with majority bondholder consent).
  • Represented a recycling manufacturer in expanding and improving its South Carolina operations through a multimillion-dollar financing under the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program. This project won an award from The Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits recognizing exceptional investment projects in low-income communities.
  • Served as underwriter’s counsel on a $113.5 million revenue bond financing for student housing at Morgan State University in Maryland.
  • Served as bond counsel for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a $550 million, three series financing to refinance and restructure fixed and variable rate debt.

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