Public Finance
CFDB serves as bond counsel, underwriter counsel and borrower counsel on a national basis for governmental, private activity, and non-profit bond financing transactions.

Through its private activity and non-profit bond financing practice, CFDB serves as bond counsel on a national basis for tax-exempt and taxable bond transactions, ranging from standard financing and refinancing transactions to more sophisticated transactions, including bonds that facilitate balance sheet philanthropy and estate giving transactions, bonds used to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and new business unit startups and bonds used in public-private-partnership transactions. Our national client base includes a wide variety of borrowers including universities, charter schools, healthcare organizations, dioceses, religious orders, parishes, affordable housing organizations, and other non-profit organizations.

Leveraging our status as a certified Woman’s Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Woman’s Business Enterprise Council (WBENC), CFDB’s governmental bond practice includes serving as co-bond counsel or underwriter counsel on transactions involving governmental bond issuances. CFDB is now the largest WBENC-Certified WBE law firm in Chicago and, based on available data, one of the top-five largest WBE law firms in the United States.

The CFDB Public Finance practice benefits greatly from expertise drawn from other robust CFDB practice groups, including the Non-Profit Advisory, Governmental Affairs and Regulatory Law, Real Estate and Finance & Liquidity Solutions practice groups.

The CFDB Public Finance Group has expertise advising clients with respect to a wide range of financing transactions, structures, and capabilities, which include:

• Tax-exempt and taxable debt
• Private and public bonds
• Guaranteed and/or rated bonds
• Balance sheet philanthropy capability
• Embedded shelf-offering capability
• Evergreen financing capability
• Master Trust Indenture structures designed for issuers with many affiliates or projects
• Real estate development transactions
• Acquisition and recapitalization transactions

Representative Matters