Title: Senior Associate
Firm: Orrick
Age: 36
Helen Pennock, senior associate in public finance at Orrick, was first introduced to public finance when, fresh out of Georgetown University Law Center, she took a summer associate position at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
She worked in their structured finance group and with almost no previous experience in finance, felt at odds with the subject matter. She left after a year and four months and began searching for opportunities more aligned with public interest, as well as her own values.
That led her to an opening as a paralegal for the New York State Housing Finance Agency, one of the organizations that issues affordable housing bonds, where she was involved in numerous real estate and affordable housing matters. But the work itself opened a new door for Helen.
"I just started to get interested and excited about what our bond counsel and our lawyers that drafted our offering documents representing us were doing," Helen said. She ultimately was intrigued enough to apply for a job at Orrick in 2016, was hired, and has been with the firm since.
At Orrick, she's touched almost every sector of the muni market and has also worked frequently with the New York City Housing Development Corp. as well as the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
"Since I started in this industry, it's been a constant series of new issues, new questions of change, new transactions and creative ways to deal with the shifting legal and economic climate," Helen said.
She welcomes the opportunity to continue to embrace the changes underway in the muni market and legal profession.
