Elizabeth Preate Havey promoted at Dilworth Paxson

Dilworth Paxson

Dilworth Paxson has elected Philadelphia-based Elizabeth Preate Havey to equity partner. 

Havey uses her deep background in Pennsylvania to work on project finance and public finance deals, especially asset sales and leases, the firm said. 

Havey started her career in mergers and acquisitions at Pepper Hamilton. After around five years, Pepper Hamilton's chair of public finance suggested she try her hand at public finance. 

Havey sees a lot of similarities between public finance and mergers and acquisitions. But the biggest selling point for Havey, who was pregnant with her first child, was that she could anticipate her work schedule as much as a year in advance. So she gradually made the switch.

In the years since, Havey worked at Mesirov Gelman, served as deputy campaign manager for a mayor's race and then came to Dilworth, where she's worked for more than 13 years. 

A major part of Dilworth's practice is helping governments sell and lease their assets. These are basically M&A deals impacted by a specific set of laws and regulations, Havey said.

"My M&A experience has been really helpful in developing that niche," Havey said.  

Havey's political connections also set her apart. The daughter of a former state Attorney General, Havey has served as the secretary of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, the president of the Pennsylvania Society and general counsel of the National Constitution Center. Last year, she co-chaired the transition team for Attorney General Dave Sunday, and she's sat on the governing board of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority since 2021. 

"Because of my community involvement, I had a lot of contacts, which meant I could bring in some deals," Havey said. 

Havey has worked on deals for Temple University Health System, counties, school districts and the Harrisburg Parking Authority. According to Dilworth, she also "advised the city of Harrisburg in continuing disclosure compliance in the midst of its financial crisis."

Dilworth's practice for water and wastewater system sales has been busy, Havey said, which she expects to continue. 

Pennsylvania has 100- and 200-year-old water and wastewater systems, Havey said. Thanks to crumbling infrastructure and increasing environmental regulations, many municipalities want to sell their systems and defease the debt, especially in the commonwealth's Northeast. 

"We met with a city there who has sinkholes, and they're shutting down roadways because their terracotta pipes are collapsing," Havey said. "Some of these municipalities, their borrowing capacity is maximized, so they can't go issue any more debt. And they're being downgraded by Moody's [Ratings] and S&P [Global Ratings] because of their sewer systems."

Havey is somewhat optimistic about the higher education sector, at least more than many. 

Universities that are doing well are issuing debt, she said. 

She's worked with the less successful part of the sector, such as Cabrini University, which was bought by the nearby Villanova University in 2024. But she pointed to an upcoming deal she's working on for Eastern University, which is growing. 

"They ended up getting a bunch of Cabrini students, which was helpful to them," Havey said. "So, I think higher ed is going to be something that we continue to see strong in the next year."

Pennsylvania's hospitals, meanwhile, have a bleaker outlook, Havey predicts. Many hospitals, especially in Northeast Pennsylvania, will likely close because of Medicaid cuts. 

For-profit healthcare company CHS sold three Scranton hospitals to nonprofit Tenor Health this month, for $33 million cash and a $15 million promissory note. A year and a half ago, Dilworth worked with a different nonprofit that tried to buy the hospitals for nearly twice the price. The deal fell apart because the nonprofit couldn't find any buyers for their bonds. 

"A lot of institutional investors, etc., are paying very close attention to the numbers for these hospitals, because they're struggling," Havey said. "Funding is getting tricky because the bond market is trepidatious about those bonds."

Public finance law is seeing a lot of changes, Havey said. She noted the recent departures from Ballard Spahr and the overall shrinking of the bar. She predicts firms invested in bond law will "consolidate" going forward. 

"Huge firms that have very high rates are less interested in keeping [public finance] groups. Mid-sized firms like ours, where we have the ability to handle complex issues and we have depth in those, I think that's very good for us," Havey said. "We can pick up where some of those bigger firms have decided they don't want to keep the practices."

But Dilworth has also shifted its practice away from certain deals, often because the price wasn't worth the effort, Havey said. The firm is doing less and less GO work, for instance. 

"We've made strategic decisions not to respond to RFPs where we know that the decision is solely based on price and not competence, and we see that more in the general obligation bond area," she said. "So we're willing to cut our rates to do some of this work, but we're not going to do it for practically free."