CHICAGO – Miller Canfield Plc has added three attorneys its public finance ranks.
The firm said veteran bond lawyers James Crowley and Alan Szuma, who formerly worked at Clark Hill Plc, have joined the Detroit office. Crowley is a principal and Szuma is a senior attorney.
A third lawyer, Jeffrey Aronoff, is returning to the firm as a principal after a four-year absence during which he led a nonprofit and launched a firm that works with businesses on non-traditional financing sources.
Aronoff specializes is a generalist in public finance securities, working on infrastructure finance, economic development finance, and school finance and past deals include the restructuring and redevelopment of Cobo Hall in Detroit.
Crowley specializes in school finance transactions serving as counsel on a broad range of tax-exempt and taxable financings using various structures for education borrowers and conduits. Crowley has expertise with school elections for bond proposals, operating tax proposals, and school building and site sinking fund proposals.
Szuma’s practice covers school and municipal finance and general school business law.
“The addition of these highly experienced attorneys is good news for Miller Canfield clients, as they bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience in municipal and school finance issues,” the firm said in a statement announcing the hires.
The additions were among 10 new attorneys hired to bolster various practices.
“We are fortunate to have such a distinguished group of highly skilled and respected lawyers joining us,” the firm’s chief executive officer Michael McGee, a public finance attorney, said in a statement of the larger group. “These additions to our firm position us to provide the excellent legal services across the spectrum of areas of expertise where our clients need us most.”
The firm employs 248 attorneys globally and 45 in its public finance group. The 45 are located in the firm’s offices in Michigan including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Lansing as well as its Chicago office.
The firm ranked fifth in the Midwest among bond counsel last year, working on deals valued at nearly $2 billion most of which is attributed to issues in Michigan where the firm placed first in league tables, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
