The new slate of bond counsel firms announced Wednesday by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York includes three teams pairing large firms with smaller minority-owned firms.
DASNY selected eight firms or teams in response to an June request for proposals for legal services. One team pairs Sidley Austin LLP — the nation’s number-three bond counsel last year with deals totaling $19.71 billion — and McKenzie & Associates PC, a small Washington, D.C.-based minority-owned firm.
The pairing was initiated in response to “diversity initiatives that the Dormitory Authority has been advocating,” said Sidley partner Neil Kaplan.
Sidley chose McKenzie because they knew the work of the firm’s founder, Michael McKenzie, Kaplan said.
“He had been very active on some other accounts that we had worked on,” Kaplan said. “We basically thought he was a very strong lawyer and could add to the team.”
Sidley Austin will take on tax responsibilities, but both will likely deliver separate opinions, according to Kaplan.
“There may be some duplication of effort,” he said. “This is still a work in progress and we’re trying to develop it in such a way so that it’s an efficient process both for the Dormitory Authority and for the bond counsel firms.”
DASNY was the second-largest issuer in the nation last year after California, selling $7.5 billion of bonds, according to Thomson Reuters.
The two other chosen teams are Hodgson Russ LLP and Golden & Associates PC; and Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP and Y3K Holdings, doing business as Knox Seaton.
The authority also selected five individual bond counsel firms: Harris Beach PLLC, Hawkins, Delafield & Wood LLP, Hiscock & Barclay LLP, Nixon Peabody LLP, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
DASNY executive director Paul Williams Jr. headed a task force created by Gov. David Paterson in 2008 to establish practices intended to increase participation by minority- and women-owned business enterprises on underwriting state-backed debt. The MWBE task force issued recommendations and then expanded into other areas including legal services.
“Our first legal RFP since I joined DASNY marks a new direction in response to Gov. Paterson’s efforts to increase opportunities for MWBE firms in New York and to increase competition in general among firms competing for the state’s business,” Williams said in a release. “What began with the task force [led] to legislation making task force recommendations a permanent part of the way New York does business.”
In July, lawmakers enacted legislation designed to increase diversity in state procurement practices. The law created a cabinet-level position within the governor’s office, the chief diversity officer, to oversee implementation of diversity programs. Williams announced that the managing director of DASNY’s office of executive initiatives, Carra Wallace, had been appointed to that position.
Meantime, the agency gave final approval Wednesday for up to $85 million of tax-exempt bonds on behalf of the Rochester Institute of Technology. More than half — $44.6 million — of the proceeds will be used to advance refund bonds issued in 2002. The remainder will be used for various capital projects, including a $29 million building.
The institute offers undergraduate, graduate degrees, as well as Ph.D. programs in imaging science and technology, and has more than 16,000 full- and part-time students.
RBC Capital Markets will lead manage the deal. Squire Sanders is bond counsel.
The authority also approved the private placement of up to $7.5 million of bonds on behalf of the Summit School, a private school serving emotionally handicapped adolescents in Upper Nyack, N.Y. The bonds will be used to build a 20,000-square-foot building at the school.
