Wisconsin-based law firm Michael Best & Friedrich LLP plans to renew its commitment to public finance with the hiring of 25-year industry veteran Charles D. Katz.
Michael Best was consistently a top-three public finance player in its home state until a string of top veterans began departing for competing firms in 2004. Its presence in the market has since declined rapidly, but the firm now sees opportunity to regain its footing despite a slow market and lagging economy.
“The firm had a lot of background in public finance a few years back, but either through attrition, or political changes, the firm has not been doing much public finance,” Katz said. “But it’s made a decision to get back into it and build a practice.”
Founded in 1848, Michael Best’s public finance practice peaked in 2002 when it was bond counsel on 54 transactions worth $1.2 billion, ranking it second in Wisconsin. But with the departures in 2004 and 2005 its ranking dropped five spots to eighth, and then continued to shrink further. So far this year it ranks ninth as counsel on seven issues worth $30.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters.
Katz, who took on his new role July 1, is a 25-year industry veteran based in Chicago and the only partner working exclusively in public finance.
He works with a small group of public finance professionals he calls “dedicated, well-seasoned, and looking to grow the practice.”
As of August, the firm had 214 attorneys and 139 partners in five offices — four in Wisconsin and one in Chicago.
“Our goal in the next couple of years is to grow and become a significant presence in the Midwest and hopefully branch out in other places,” Katz said. “The goal in the next two or three years is to have a team of five to seven people — that’s what I’m shooting for.”
He reports directly to Alec Fraser, head of the banking and financial services group, and Greg Lynch, head of the transactional practice group. Katz’s career has focused on the interpretation and application of federal tax law for municipal bonds. He has also focused on recovery zone facility bonds, affordable housing, arbitrage rebate, private use and other tax analysis.
“I’m a 103 tax lawyer, that’s my main focus,” Katz said, referring to the section of the tax code dealing with interest on state and local bonds. “But I also do a lot of work in the underwriters’ counsel field. So I’m 100% public-finance related but I wear a couple of different hats.”
He most recently spent three years as counsel at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in Chicago. For six years beginning in 2002 Katz was a partner at Duane Morris LLP, and from 1994 to 1998 he was an associate at LeBoeuf Lamb & Greene & MacRae. His public finance career began in 1986 at the New York office of Hawkins, Delafield & Wood LLP.
“I’ve seen a lot of firms lose interest or realize they don’t have the commitment they once had,” Katz said. “What I like about Michael Best is the commitment to the industry, to building the public finance practice, especially in a down market and in a bad economy. A lot of firms just aren’t making that commitment.”
