CHICAGO — Ohio-based public finance law firm Peck, Shaffer & Williams LLP has hired a new associate for its Cincinnati office.
The firm hired Gregory Lavigne fresh from University of Michigan Law School. He joins a team of 20 attorneys working out of the Cincinnati office, which is the firm’s headquarters.
Peck Shaffer has a total of 44 public finance attorneys working out of six offices across the county.
For Lavigne, 25, who also has a master’s degree in urban planning, the attraction of municipal finance law is playing a role in government capital projects.
“Public finance is a very positive profession,” he said. “The majority of what I’ve been able to do so far is helping a municipality get a project done, and that’s very enjoyable to me.”
“I also get to experience what it’s like to be doing these municipal projects, which I studied in school,” he said.
Lavigne started at the firm in March, three months after graduation.
He will focus on traditional tax-exempt and taxable financings for local governments and school districts.
Outside of the job, he is working as a volunteer with a few local economic development initiatives. Among them is Plan Cincinnati, the city planning department’s 10-year road map for the city’s future.
Lavigne volunteers on the transportation committee, where he helps promote a long-touted plan to build a streetcar line connecting the city’s downtown riverfront with the University of Cincinnati.
In May, the City Council passed a measure to issue up to $64 million of bonds in financing for the streetcar line. The city is now trying to secure federal matching funds for the $128 million project.
Peck Shaffer was the second-highest ranked bond counsel in Ohio in 2009 and the first in Kentucky, according to the firm.
It ranked sixth in the Midwest last year, down from third in 2008, according to Thomson Reuters.
Founded in 1889, the firm was one of the first bond counsel practices in the U.S.
Peck Shaffer said it ranked 18th in the nation in 2008 for combined total dollar volume when serving as bond counsel or underwriter’s counsel, with a total dollar volume of over $6.27 billion in 2009.
The firm has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Covington, Ky., and Denver.
It employs 82 professionals, of whom 44 are public finance attorneys and 39 are administrative and staff positions.
