NABL Elects New Officers, Three New Board Members

CHICAGO — The National Association of Bond Lawyers elected new officers and announced three new board members here on Wednesday.

Scott R. Lilienthal, a partner at Hogan Lovells LLP in Washington, D.C., who had been president-elect, became president, replacing Kristin Franceschi, a partner at DLA Piper LLP in Baltimore.

Lilienthal has been a member of NABL’s board of directors since 2004 and chaired the group’s tax committee in 2008.

At Hogan Lovells, his practice involves all areas of the tax law, with a special emphasis on public finance. Before joining the firm, he was an attorney advisor with the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of the Assistant Chief Counsel for Financial Institutions and Products for three years.

NABL elected Allen K. Robertson, a shareholder with Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A. in Charlotte, as its new president-elect. Robertson, who will become NABL president next year, served on the group’s board of directors in 2008 and 2009 and was elected to a three-year term in 2010. He is particularly involved in his firm’s health care public finance practice, but also has substantial experience in financings of educational, multifamily housing, solid waste, airport and other facilities.

Antonio Martini, a partner at Edwards Wildman Palmer in Boston, was elected treasurer for the second consecutive year. Martini has extensive experience with virtually every form of tax-benefited public finance transaction and is a regular speaker and panelist at NABL tax seminars and workshop sessions.

Kenneth R. Artin, managing shareholder with Bryant Miller Olive in Orlando, was elected secretary for a second term. He has expertise with securities issues and has served as disclosure, bond, or special tax counsel in a variety of muni transactions.

The officers each serve one-year terms.

The new NABL board members are: Perry Israel, a Sacramento-based tax attorney; Faith Li Pettis, a founding partner of the Pacifica Law Group in Seattle; and E. Tyler Smith, a shareholder with Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A. in Greenville, S.C.

Israel has focused on tax-exempting financing since 1980, serving as a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in California for 20 years before starting his own practice in 2007. He has chaired teleconferences, committees and regulation comment projects for NABL and has also served on the group’s board of directors and was its secretary. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s tax-exempt financing committee.

Before Pacifica, Pettis practiced at Preston Gates & Ellis and its successor firm K&L Gates LLP for 19 years and served as chair of its public finance practice group. This year, she was appointed by the Governor of Washington State to chair the Affordable House Advisory Board. She also serves as a trustee for College Spark Washington, an organization that makes education grants.

Smith serves as bond counsel, letter of credit, underwriter’s and borrower’s counsel in tax-exempt and taxable financings. He has worked on interest rate swaps and complex investment transactions as well as other financings. He has served varying roles with NABL. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. NABL is a professional organization with more than 2,800 members. The group’s mission is to promote muni market integrity by advancing understanding of, and compliance with, public finance law.

The new officers and board members are announced annually in October at a business meeting that coincides with the group’s Bond Attorney’s Workshop.

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Law and regulation Tax
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