Howard Zucker is stepping down after a year as president of the National Association of Bond Lawyers with kudos from regulators and other market participants for dramatically changing the character of NABL and propelling it into a major leadership role in the municipal market.
Zucker, a partner at Hawkins, Delafield & Wood in New York City, was sidelined most of the summer of 1999 recovering from emergency double-bypass heart surgery. But he hit the ground running that September when he took over the helm of NABL, setting up a series of task forces and committees to tackle some of the long-standing controversies plaguing the market, as well as other issues he thought should be addressed.
Under his leadership, NABL for the first time adopted a mission statement, a strategic plan, and a business plan. It issued reports on the proposed amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code and electronic competitive bidding, as well as on the impact of retroactive effective dates in tax legislation. It is expected to issue reports on other topics such as whether analysts should talk to issuers about their secondary market disclosures. And a task force is delving into new financial products and other securities- and tax-related issues -- something that had been the sole domain of the dealer community and that had failed to grab the interest of issuers.
NABL has also played a key role in addressing regulatory issues that have arisen during the year. The group submitted comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service on electronic disclosure, fees for guaranteed investment contracts, investment-type property, and prepayments.
But Zucker is lauded most for his efforts to reach out to other groups and to work with them to resolve some of the thorny issues confronting the market. During the past 12 months an unprecedented number of representatives of other market groups have attended NABL meetings, and NABL members in turn have visited other groups.
"I certainly commend him on his efforts to open up the dialogue between NABL and other industry groups like the National Federation of Municipal Analysts," Dina Kennedy, the NFMA's chairwoman, said in a recent interview. "We have really appreciated his willingness to provide us with speakers and to talk to us himself."
The NFMA has had a long-standing, contentious, and sometimes vitriolic battle with NABL over whether issuers should talk to analysts about their secondary market disclosures -- something the NFMA naturally favors, and some bond lawyers had opposed. Thus Kennedy was stunned earlier this year when Zucker said at a conference that this was not a legal issue, that it was up to the issuer to decide, and that there may be good business reasons for maintaining good relationships with the analysts.
"My jaw dropped. I was shocked," Kennedy recalled. "There was a shift in tone from one of 'Don't tell the analysts anything' to one of 'Having a good investor-relations program might be a good business decision.' That was a sea change and it was dramatic."
"I have only praise for what Howard has done," she added. "We've learned what NABL is, what their mission is, what their positions are, and who their constituents are. And we've learned that they are willing to have a dialogue sometimes instead of just thinking they are right. You need to give him The Bond Buyer 'Good Guy' award."
Alan Anders, the director of debt and fiscal policy for New York City and chairman of the Government Finance Officers Association's debt committee, said that while NABL has always been influential, it has been more inward-looking.
"I think NABL, unlike other groups, has had a reputation of taking a disinterested look at things," Anders said. But under Zucker's leadership, "it's been a year in which there's been a lot of activity and thought and communication and work with other groups that may not have taken place in previous years."
"It's increased their influence" with market participants, Anders said, adding that in areas such as electronic disclosure, NABL has "take a strong leadership role" that has "focused all of us on all of the issues" and "helped us to have a common front."
Zucker himself set the stage for that at the organization's Washington seminar in May when he jumped up from the audience during a panel session and declared that "electronic documents should be treated no better and no worse than paper documents."
"He's brought NABL into the leadership role that they have long avoided," said Paul Maco, director of the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities. "There have been gaps where the best party, the most appropriate party to step in and speak, has been the legal community." Lawyers typically have the most contact with municipal issuers and borrowers, and at various times work on behalf of all transaction participants.
"The bar has played a very significant role in the securities markets over time, particularly the American Bar Association," Maco said. "But there has been a bit of a vacuum in the municipal bar. Howard has taken the opportunity and exercised leadership. We may not always see eye to eye, but he has very quickly made NABL a very important and active voice on disclosure matters."
Anders has special praise for Zucker's intellectual abilities.
"He's not only intellectually rigorous, but he's an intellectually curious guy," Anders said. "I've never had a conversation with him that I haven't learned something new. When you're dealing with him, you're always engaging in an intellectual discussion as well."
Which is not to say that he's overly serious. Zucker, alone among NABL's many presidents, has shown an impressive ability to quote Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan at length and somehow find ways to tie their lyrics to the municipal bond market.
