Obituary: Neil Hoffberg

Anilkumar J. “Neil” Hoffberg, a partner at Abramoff, Neuberger and Linder LLP in Baltimore who practiced municipal bond and business law in Maryland for more than 20 years, died Dec. 27 of complications from a heart attack he had suffered 16 days earlier. Mr. Hoffberg was a resident of Butler, Md., in northern Baltimore County. He was 53.Mr. Hoffberg was known for his ability to master complicated transactions and business strategies, as well as their business and accounting consequences. “He really had a gift for looking at a transaction and saying, ‘This is how we should structure it,’ ” said Patrick Arey, a colleague at Abramoff Neuberger. He also had a great deal of expertise in public-private partnerships, assisting the Maryland Economic Development Corp. in acquiring property and engaging private parties to help renovate and build new energy generation, transmission, and distribution systems at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus as well as with financing the development of privatized student dormitories on six campuses.He served as bond counsel to the University System of Maryland on bond issues totaling about $1.8 billion.“Neil creatively assisted MEDCO and the University of Maryland System with numerous projects and in particular student housing residences,” said Robert C. Brennan, MEDCO’s executive director. “Neil’s thoughts and ideas will be forever memorialized in not only the projects he completed but ... in future financing of these state projects.” Mr. Hoffberg was bond counsel to St. Mary’s College of Maryland on bond issues totaling about $69 million. He also provided pro bono advice to many clients, serving as treasurer and a board member of the Legal Aid Bureau, and as former board member to the Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, the Baltimore Mental Health Systems, and the Cloisters Children’s Museum.“Neil contributed unselfishly to the nurturing of his family and generously to the betterment of his community,” said Wilhelm Joseph, the Legal Aid Bureau’s executive director. “He was an outstanding exemplar to all, in the affairs that matter most — family, friends, work, play, community service, and cheerfulness.”Mr. Hoffberg was born in Manhattan and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975, majoring in Oriental Studies and specializing in China. He attended the Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York and was research editor of the Law Review there before graduating with honors in 1980. He moved to Annapolis that year to join Baltimore-based Frank, Bernstein, Conaway and Goldman. He later re-located to Baltimore County, joining Abramoff Neuberger as a partner in 1992. He is survived by his wife of 30 years, the former Beverly Trudell, and his two sons, Byron Hoffberg of Windsor, Conn., and Yale Hoffberg, of Butler, Md. A memorial service will be held on Sunday, Jan. 13, at 1:00 p.m. at Gilman School in Baltimore. Directions to the school are available at www.gilman.edu/aboutus/directions.