John Palmer

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Title: Senior Associate

Firm: Orrick

Age: 39

Industry & Community Contributions: Trustee and Board Chair for Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley; Board of Managers for Embarcadero YMCA

Fun Facts: John and his wife recently had fraternal twins. He also knows the best place to find an authentic New York bagel in Berkeley.

John Palmer has built a national reputation as an expert in financing for school districts, community colleges, cities, counties, and charter schools. He served as lead author of California's Senate Bill 222 granting holders of general obligation (GO) bonds a statutory lien on taxes levied to pay them, dramatically decreasing the risk of non payment.

John has acted as lead counsel on more than $1 billion in bonds for public school facilities programs in California, including Sacramento City Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District. He serves as an adviser on many important bond programs, including an upcoming $3.5 billion GO bond for the November ballot and approximately $1.5 billion of GO bonds for housing in several California counties.

For his municipal bond work, John was selected by the Daily Journal as one of the top 40 lawyers under 40 in California in 2016.

 

"California school districts have argued for more than 30 years that the credit risk on their bonds should be evaluated solely on the strength of their tax base. It was an issue that long plagued the industry. John came up with a forward-thinking and innovative approach that was enacted into law SB 222."

Eugene Clark-Herrera
Partner, Orrick

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