The municipal bond market has experienced remarkable changes since the financial crisis, including the need for new, creative financing methods, the elimination of advance refundings, and enhanced compliance and enforcement activities by federal agencies.
Parker Poe provides its clients with a broad and deep level of experience that can react quickly and thoughtfully to a client’s needs. With more than 10 lawyers in the public finance practice 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 the unrivaled 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
Innovative Approach Our team has pioneered a variety of innovating financing structures to help meet the ever-changing needs of our clients. Examples include:
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 as bond counsel for hundreds of local governments throughout our geographic footprint.
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.
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.
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.