Ex-DASNY Counsel Joins Squire Sanders

Squire Sanders looked to tap into Jeffrey Pohl’s wide experience at handling complex deals when it hired the former general counsel from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York for its public infrastructure and finance practice group.

The law firm is no stranger to Pohl.

“I had an opportunity to work with them when I was at DASNY. Squire Sanders appealed to me because of its broad platform,” said Pohl, 62, from Delmar, N.Y. He joined the firm last month. Pohl will work out of the New York office but will maintain an Albany presence.

Bruce Gabriel, the group leader for the practice, called Pohl a “knowledgeable, thoughtful and collegial practitioner.”

Pohl has spent most of his 35-year career in New York state and local government, the last 13 as general counsel for DASNY, one of the largest issuers in the United States of tax-exempt debt to finance public, public-private and nonprofit infrastructure projects.

DASNY, created by legislation in 1944, gets its name from its original purpose, to build dormitories at teachers’ colleges.

In the first half of 2012, DASNY issued $3.9 billion of debt through 21 deals, putting it atop the Thomson Reuters table.

Since 2001, Thomson Reuters has ranked Squire Sanders’ U.S. public finance practice among the top five bond counsel practices nationally, by deal dollar volume. In the first quarter of this year, Squire Sanders rated fourth, with $2.7 billion worth of deals through 42 issues.

At DASNY, Pohl was responsible for financings, legislation, litigation, construction, contract matters and asset management for an organization that frequently goes to market with large-denomination or benchmark deals. He also served for many years in the state comptroller’s office.

“We did a lot of interesting things at DASNY,” said Pohl, who sees growth in infrastructure and health care as state and local governments deal with fiscal stress.

Pohl was a panelist last year at The Bond Buyer’s health care, higher education and cultural institution conference in New York, and served on then-Gov. David Paterson’s task force in 2009 on legal services procurement opportunities in New York State.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Franklin & Marshall College in 1973 and his law degree from the Albany Law School of Union University in 1977, the same year he joined the New York State bar.

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