Chapman and Cutler Announces Two Internal Promotions

CHICAGO — Chicago-based public finance behemoth Chapman and Cutler LLP has promoted two veteran public finance attorneys — Timothy V. McGree and M. John Trofa — to the role of co-chairs of its public finance group as the firm pushes to expand its national practice.

The two took over managing the group at the start of the new year from Daniel Johnson, who was recently named the firm’s chief operating partner. Johnson had managed the public finance group for the last decade.

McGree, 59, and Trofa, 53, both have more than 25 -years of experience with the firm and have spent their legal careers there. McGree’s practice focuses on providing legal counsel for the traditional governmental sector while Trofa’s specialty is working as counsel on both affordable housing and the private activity sector.

McGree’s management focus going forward will center on administrative duties involving the firm’s Midwestern practice ,while Trofa is charged with focusing on the firm’s expansion efforts. The two will manage a cadre of about 80 attorneys that work on public finance issues from among the firm’s overall staff of about 225 lawyers in its Chicago, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco offices.

“Chapman has a long-established preeminence in public finance and we’re confident that John and Tim will continue our unbroken success streak as the nation’s most active tax-exempt bond counsel,” the 93-year-old firm’s chief executive partner Richard Cosgrove said in a statement. “The co-chair arrangement will allow us to maintain our strong presence in the Midwest, while expanding our relationships with issuers around the country.”

“As part of our emphasis of expanding our national practice we are looking at other opportunities, such as in New York City and elsewhere wherever there are opportunities” to move into a region with strong hires, Trofa said in an interview yesterday. “To be a national firm you need to have physical locations.”

The firm is hoping to snare a larger number of deals nationally as it goes forward and to move up in the rankings. The firm closed out 2007 placing eighth among bond counsel, advising on $9.7 billion of deals. The firm was the leader among law firms nationally in the number of deals on which it served as bond counsel — a total of 613, according to Thomson Financial. Chapman and Cutler has held the lead position by number of deals for the last 27 years.

The firm ranked first in Illinois last year in total deal volume with $6.7 billion and second overall in the Midwest.

“We expect the number of new issues to remain relatively steady as there is a constant need for money to fund infrastructure improvements across the whole spectrum of sectors,” Trofa said.

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