Rhonda Skoby and Rachel Lochner joined the public finance practice of Taft, Stettinius and Hollister as partner and associate, respectively. They will be based in the firm's Minneapolis office.
"We are thrilled to welcome Rhonda and Rachel to Taft, as they are an excellent fit for our team, bringing extensive experience in navigating a wide range of complex public finance transactions and issues," Catherine Courtney, a partner at the firm and head of its public finance practice in Minneapolis, said in a statement.
Skoby earned a B.A. from Hamline University and a J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law. She joins Taft after 10 years at Dorsey & Whitney. She also worked as a judicial law clerk on the Minnesota Court of Appeals and a law clerk in the education division of the Minnesota Attorney General's office.
An active member of the public finance community, she is legislative chair of the Minnesota Institute of Public Finance, vice president of education for the Minnesota Chapter of Women in Public Finance and on the board of directors of WomenVenture.
"For me, this is just a really great opportunity to work alongside a great public finance team that I've known for years," Skoby told The Bond Buyer. "My practice is a mix of governmental bonds, conduit bonds, underwriter's counsel work, and I feel like this move really strengthens each of those areas. And I've just been very impressed by the depth of experience at Taft and thought it would be a nice match for my practice."
Skoby has worked as bond counsel on general obligation and sales tax deals for local governments; delved into higher education and charter school conduit deals; worked on 501(c) financings; and served as underwriter's counsel on education, senior living and nonprofit bonds.
In the past year she served as underwriter's counsel on a University of St. Thomas bond financing and worked on capital improvement and sales tax bond deals for Hennepin County. She also helped arrange funding for a light-rail project in Minneapolis.
Lochner earned a bachelor's degree from Macalester College and her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. She previously worked at the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency as a tax credit and finance attorney, focusing on the development and preservation of affordable housing. Before that, she was an associate attorney at Winthrop and Weinstine and a volunteer law clerk for the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid.
At the Minnesota HFA, Lochner worked extensively with the federal low-income housing tax credit program as well as with state and local incentives related to affordable housing. She expects to work on LIHTC transactions in the bond counsel role for Taft, and also branch out into other areas of public finance.
"I'm deeply committed to public service and believe that housing is a human right … and that kind of grounds me in what I do," Lochner told The Bond Buyer. "That's how I was drawn to this public finance practice: being motivated to understand how our physical and social infrastructure is built, what resources are available to fund that work, and especially how can creative financing tools help bridge the gap between what the private market will support and what the public sector wants to promote.
"I was really excited to have the opportunity to move over to Taft to partner with and learn from colleagues with a greater breadth and depth of expertise in the public finance and economic development sphere," she said.
Skoby and Lochner agreed they were eager to join the "accomplished and growing" public finance practice at Taft. Lochner cited Taft's national presence, saying it's an exciting time to join the group. And Skoby pointed to Taft's recent merger with Sherman and Howard.
Taft ranked eighth nationally among bond counsel on competitive issues in 2024, according to LSEG data.
The firm has been expanding through a series of mergers, including into Florida this month, with the Mrachek Law firm. Part of the Am Law 100, it employs more than 1,050 attorneys across the country.
