Kutak Boosts Minnesota Presence With New Office, Muni Veterans

CHICAGO — With its appointment as bond counsel on Minnesota’s upcoming tobacco and general obligation bond sales still fresh, Omaha, Neb.-based Kutak Rock LLP has expanded its physical reach into the state with the opening of an office staffed with two veteran public finance attorneys.

David Murphy and Jill Laorr left Best & Flanagan LLP’s Minneapolis office to join Kutak this month in an of counsel role.

The two bring to the firm more than three decades of public finance experience in bond counsel, underwriters’ counsel, issuer counsel, and bank and borrower’s counsel positions, Kutak officials said.

“We always look for ways to enhance our ability to serve our clients on a local, regional and national basis. With our national reputation in public finance and our reasonable price structure, we look forward to expanding our rapidly growing presence in the Minnesota public finance market,” Kutak chairman David Jacobson said in a statement.

Laorr’s experience spans governmental entities, higher education, student loan issuers, and the health care sector in the Midwest, Southwest, and West. In addition to local and state governments, Murphy’s practice has included nonprofit borrowers, housing, and Native American financings.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson recently selected Kutak Rock as bond and transaction counsel on the state’s planned tobacco securitization this fall.

Swanson’s office also named Kutak as bond counsel for the state’s GO sales and for the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.

Kutak replaces Dorsey & Whitney LLP on state GO issues and at the HFA agency. The attorney general also recently terminated Best & Flanagan as bond counsel to the Minnesota Higher Education Facilities Authority.

Sources said the changes were due to corporate client conflicts with the state and fees.

Kutak Rock has sought for some time to establish a physical presence in the state as its work there has grown in recent years, according to John Wagner, co-head of the public finance group. “Jill and David are great lawyers who are well-known in Minnesota and well-liked by their clients. They are a great fit with our firm,” he said.

The firm has no other imminent expansion plans, but Wagner said Kutak Rock will keep its eye on opportunistic hires. “Public finance has been a backbone of our business,” he said.

Kutak ranks first among bond counsel in the Midwest so far this year and finished last year in fourth place, according to Thomson Reuters.

It ranked sixth last year in Minnesota but is not among the top-ranked firms so far this year. The firm ranks second nationally for the first half of the year and finished last year in fourth place.

Kutak Rock employs more than 420 lawyers, including 100 in its public finance practice, in offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Fayetteville, Ariz., Irvine, Calif., Kansas City, Mo., Little Rock, Ark., Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Richmond, Va., Scottsdale, Ariz., Washington, D.C., and Wichita, Kan.

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