Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP has hired five lead public finance attorneys from Winston & Strawn LLP, expanding Katten's New York public finance group.
The five bond lawyers are James S. Normile, William F. Dudine, Patricia A. Mollica, Alexander Deland and Catriona M. Morgan. The move signifies Katten's commitment to expand its public finance presence on the East Coast and across the country, said the firm via a press release issued today.
"This outstanding team of attorneys brings tremendous experience to our government and public finance practice," Roger P. Furey, chairman of Katten, said in announcing the hires on Wednesday.
Jim Normile concentrates his practice in the area of public finance. With more than 30 years of experience, he has served as bond counsel, underwriter's counsel, bank counsel and borrower's counsel for a variety of not-for-profit hospitals, nursing homes, continuing care retirement communities, universities, colleges and cultural institutions as well as municipalities, state agencies, industrial development agencies, and other units of state and local government.
Since 1976, Normile has served as both bond and underwriter's counsel on a variety of financings for public power facilities, resource recovery facilities, water and sewer facilities, and privatization projects in cases where the projects are structured as stand-alone borrowings or state-supported debt, or a combination of both.
William Dudine represents investment banks as underwriter's counsel, lender's counsel, and bond counsel for a range of public finance and project finance transactions. He has particular experience representing clients in key infrastructure financings for major public facilities including airport, stadium, water and sewer, educational, waste-to-energy, toll bridges, and toll roads. He also advises clients on public-private partnership transactions (P3), structured municipal financings, and economic development projects.
Patricia Mollica focuses her practice in the areas of public finance and economic development. She has served as bond counsel, underwriter's counsel, disclosure counsel, bank counsel and bond insurer's counsel to various municipal, governmental, financial and banking entities in connection with general obligation bond issues, including special facility bonds, civic facility bonds, general revenue bonds and industrial development bonds. Mollica has extensive experience representing industrial development agencies in corporate incentive and straight lease transactions. Patricia has served as bond counsel on more than 30 bond issuances, remarketings, and refundings in connection with the construction and development of the World Trade center site, on numerous financings for airlines at JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, and has served as project counsel on financings of various towers at the Hudson Yards site.
Alexander Deland provides tax analysis, advice and opinions with respect to a broad range of governmental and private activity bond financings. He has more than 30 years of experience in municipal finance tax practice, serving issuers, conduit borrowers, underwriters, direct purchasers of bonds, credit enhancers and providers of municipal derivatives. His work includes the issuance and restructuring of municipal debt, post-issuance remediation and anticipatory remediation to maintain tax compliance, representation of clients in IRS bond audits, and securing closing agreements under the IRS VCAP procedures. He is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and has served as a panelist at NABL's Bond Attorney Workshop and its Tax and Securities Law Institute.
Catriona Morgan concentrates her practice in health care and higher education transactions while also serving as both borrowers and issuer's counsel to a variety of public agencies and public benefit corporations. She has represented major institutional lenders in commercial real estate transactions, including construction, bridge and mezzanine financings, and permanent financings for securitizations.
"Katten clients depend on our public finance attorneys to deliver innovative financing techniques for myriad municipal and state projects," said Mark R. Grossmann, global head of Katten's corporate practice. "Jim and his team will fit well with our deep bench of talented attorneys in the Government and Public Finance group. They will make an immediate impact on both the practice and our clients."
Katten is a full-service law firm with more than 600 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. The firm's core areas of practice include corporate, financial services, insolvency and restructuring, litigation, real estate, environmental, commercial finance, intellectual property, structured finance and securitization, and trusts and estates.
"We have worked with Jim and his team over the years and know firsthand the quality of their work and vast experience in public finance," said Lewis Greenbaum, head of Katten's government and public finance practice. "They are an ideal addition to our practice."
