Robinson+Cole’s Public Finance Practice Group regularly represents education clients with their financing needs. As bond counsel to the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA), Robinson+Cole attorneys have the experience to represent secondary schools and higher education organizations in the most sophisticated tax-exempt and taxable revenue bond transactions. Robinson+Cole has a long history in public finance. Our firm was one of the first nationally recognized bond counsel firms in the country and has been listed in The Bond Buyer’s Municipal Marketplace (the “Red Book”) since the early 1940s. Robinson+Cole regularly ranks among the leaders both nationally and regionally as bond counsel for long-term and short-term debt according to statistics published by The Bond Buyer.

Robinson+Cole acts on a continuing basis as bond counsel to the State of Connecticut, CHEFA, the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, the Capital Region Development Authority and more than 45 cities, towns, housing authorities and other municipal entities, ranging from small towns functioning under the traditional New England town meeting form of government to active, large capital budget issuers. We also serve as Tax Counsel to the State of Connecticut on its General Obligation Bond program. We represent borrowers, underwriters and lenders in a wide range of public finance transactions.

As bond counsel, we have in-depth knowledge of the transactional, tax, securities and disclosure issues raised in public finance debt offerings. In representing our education clients, we provide advice with respect to:

• capital campaigns to maximize the amount of tax-exempt financing for projects
• the authorization of loans by borrowers and the authorization process of governmental issuers
• choosing between public offerings and direct bank purchases
• negotiating term sheets and commitment letters with financial institutions
• fixed rate, variable rate, and variable rate swapped to fixed using interest rate swaps
• loan agreement covenants, including debt service coverage ratios, liquidity requirements, financial reporting, limitations on additional      debt, liens, and dispositions of property
• due diligence review of documents and preparation of disclosure for official statements
• continuing disclosure exceptions and requirements
• rendering opinions regarding the authorization and enforceability of documents, the liens created by mortgage and security                      documents, the tax status of the borrower, and other opinions with respect to the borrower and the project financed
• post-issuance compliance, including completion of Schedule K to Form 990, continuing disclosure and arbitrage rebate
• reissuance, reofferings and refundings

Our Public Finance lawyers also have the ability to draw on resources from other areas of the firm, including real estate, environmental, construction and creditors’ rights, to address any issues that may arise.