Our Approach to Public Finance

We work for small and mid-sized communities across North Carolina to help them address their capital financing needs.  We use our experience and a low-key, helpful approach to guide you all the way from project identification to money in the bank.  Our clients value our commitment to client service, our willingness to look for new approaches, and our ability to help clients balance risks and opportunities.  They also know that we will be with them throughout the process, and that we’re always available to kick around ideas and talk about financing options.

• We emphasize quality.  This is the most important piece from your bond attorney and we excel. We will handle your transaction and will ensure that it is completed professionally and with an eye towards as few bumps in the road as possible.
• We are friendly and we show up. We enjoy talking about how to achieve your goals. We like attending board meetings and closings to work with elected officials and staff if there are questions. We are always up for a visit. We like being the friendly neighborhood bond attorneys.
• We speak your language. We want you to understand your transaction and so we speak in a way that’s easy to understand. We check for understanding. We welcome questions.
• We are cost effective. We are a low-overhead operation. You’re paying for bond attorneys, not beautiful offices.
• We guide the process, and we give you options. We enjoy taking a leadership role in your financing and guiding it safely to shore on your closing date. We’ll talk with you about the Local Government Commission approvals, the required resolutions, and what needs to happen when. We also like to be as hands on or hands off as you like, and we’ll talk to you about that at the beginning.
• We accommodate your schedule. We know that your life as a finance officer, manager, and local government attorney is busy. We do everything we can to make sure we fit your timeframe, not the other way around.
• Our clients aren’t satisfied—they are thrilled. The best referral you can receive is from one of our clients. They’ll tell you why they like and continue to work with us.
• Small potatoes make great hash browns. What does that mean? It means your project isn’t too small nor is your local government. We work with all sizes of government units—we don’t treat you like small potatoes whatever size you are (we think big potatoes are great for baking).
• We love this work. It’s always a great day to be a bond lawyer. We have limited practice areas because we like to drill down, to study, and contribute to a particular field. We write blog posts, law review articles, bar newsletter articles, and we present at conferences. We challenge conventions if it will help the governments we work with. We help you find the best financing for your needs—even if those needs don’t include a bond lawyer.

OUR WORK FOR INFREQUENT BORROWERS/DEVELOPERS

Working with local governments that don’t borrow money frequently is an important part of our practice. Many of these clients are small towns, but others may be larger units that simply don’t have much experience with the borrowing process (it may just be that the particular staffers haven’t been through the process). 

Most bond lawyers with experience similar to ours don’t spend as much time with infrequent borrowers as we do. We think we have particular insight into how these borrowers experience the financing process – the kinds of questions they may have, for example, or the parts of the process that they are more likely to find difficult to understand (not that the process is so complicated; it’s just that sometimes you have to wonder why the law makes you do certain things). We think we are a good fit for these clients because the nature of our practice helps us better understand their particular concerns, and that allows us to help them comfortably and confidently through the financing process. 

REFERENCES

Nothing can give you a better idea of what it is like to work with us than to talk with our clients. Once you determine that a lawyer has sufficient expertise in the legal areas where you need representation, talking with clients will tell you more about the lawyer’s qualifications — and about whether that lawyer is the right fit for you — than you will ever get from a multiple-page listing of completed transactions or printed biographical information

If what you are looking for are lawyers who are easy to talk to, responsive to your needs, available to you in-person when that’s what you want, and who is respectful of you as an individual, as a customer and as a representative of your constituents, then you simply have to talk to other clients of the lawyers you are considering. Nothing else can tell you what you want to know. Contact us if you’d like a list of references from deals similar to the one you may be considering.