WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Bond Lawyers is expected to elect three new officers and two new board members at a meeting Wednesday afternoon in Chicago.
While Alexandra “Sandy” M. MacLennan will automatically become NABL’s new president at the meeting, Dee P. Wisor, an attorney at Butler Snow in Denver, will be elected president-elect. That means he will succeed MacLennan as NABL president next year. He has been serving as NABL treasurer.
Wisor represents governmental issuers and other participants in municipal bond transactions and economic development projects. He also does disclosure work for a variety of Colorado issuers.
He started his legal career after graduation from the University of Denver School of Law in 1976 as a staff attorney to the Colorado Municipal League. He earned his undergraduate degree at Dickinson College.
Wisor has worked for local and state governments his entire career and currently serves on the board of directors of the Denver Public Schools Foundation and the board of directors of the Colorado Lawyers’ Committee.
He was named “2005 Best of the Bar” by the Denver Business Journal for his work in public finance. He is also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2007 and has been selected as The Best Lawyers’ 2012, 2015 and 2017 Public Finance Lawyer of the Year for Denver.
Richard “Rich” J. Moore a partner in the San Francisco office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, is expected to be elected NABL Treasurer. He has been serving as NABL secretary.
Moore, a member of Orrick’s tax group, concentrates his law practice on the taxation of municipal finance including multi-family housing, healthcare and nonprofit issues, solid waste disposal facilities, public power, advance refundings, municipal derivative products, and arbitrage matters.
Moore has served as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, borrower’s counsel, and special tax counsel in a wide variety of public finance transactions.
He has also represented numerous clients on audits and voluntary proceedings before the IRS, and has obtained favorable private letter rulings. He has written and lectured extensively on the tax aspects of public finance transactions, having served as editor of the Federal Taxation of Municipal Bonds Deskbook.
Moore chaired NABL’s 2012 Bond Attorneys Workshop and served on several other panels at industry seminars. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at San Diego and his law degree from University of California Hastings College of the Law.
Teri M. Guarnaccia, a partner in the Baltimore, Md. office of Ballard Spahr, will become NABL Treasurer. She has been on NABL’s board.
Guarnaccia’s law practice focuses on public finance, where she has been underwriter’s counsel, borrower’s counsel, and bond counsel in numerous tax-exempt and taxable bond financings.
She has experience with a wide range of financing structures, including traditional fixed-rate and variable-rate bonds, as well as multimodal structures involving various forms of credit enhancement and liquidity support.
She has chaired NABL’s Securities Law and Disclosure Committee and was a member of the Bond Attorneys’ Workshop Steering Committee. She served as chair of the 2014 Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law Seminar and the 2013 vice chair of the fundamentals seminar.
Guarnaccia received her bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and her law degree from Cornell Law School.
M. Jason Akers and Stacey Lewis are expected to be elected to NABL’s Board of Directors for three-year terms ending in 2020. They will replace Lorraine M. Tyson and Kenneth R. Artin, NABL’s president two years ago, whose terms have expired.
Akers is a partner in the New Orleans office of Foley & Judell, where he represents local government entities in debt financing and economic development projects.
Akers is a past chairman of NABL’s Education Committee and was 2013 chairman of NABL’s Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law Seminar.
In addition to lecturing on bond-related topics at NABL, Akers regularly addresses other trade groups in Louisiana.
He is a trustee of the University of the South (Sewanee) and a member of the board of directors of Friends of First, an organization dedicated to promoting STEM-related extracurricular activities in public schools.
Akers earned his undergraduate degree at Millsaps College and his law degree at University of Mississippi, School of Law.
Lewis is lead attorney for Pacifica’s bond and disclosure counsel teams serving the University of Washington, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University, the Washington State Convention Center Public Facilities District, the Port of Seattle, the cities of Bellevue, Tacoma, Bellingham and Redmond, King County and others.
Lewis has experience with general obligation bonds, revenue bonds (senior, intermediate and subordinate), lease revenue bonds, commercial paper, and other financing structures as well as letter of credit reimbursement, other credit/liquidity facilities, and hedge agreements.
She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and spent her junior year at the London School of Economics. Lewis earned her law degree from the University of Washington, with high honors (Order of the Coif, Washington Law Review Managing Editor, Judge Lawless Award).
Lewis was selected for Washington Super Lawyers, 2012-2017 and for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Public Finance Practice, 2010-2017. She also was Lawyer of the Year in Public Finance Law in Seattle for 2017.
She has served on the NABL Bond Attorneys’ Workshop Steering Committee and as a vice-chair of the NABL Securities Law Committee.
Rene Moore, a lawyer at Butler Snow who will become chair of the 2018 Bond Attorneys’ Workshop, will also have a seat on NABL’s board. She will succeed Kathleen J. Orlandi, the 2017 chair of BAW who also is leaving the board.
Moore conducts a full-time federal tax practice advising clients and representing clients before the IRS on the tax treatment of municipal debt instruments, including financing for governmental entities, higher education’s institutions, hospitals, 501(c)(3) organizations, and tax-exempt private activity bond financings.
She was selected for Best Lawyers in America, Tax Law, for 2013-2018.
Moore earned her LLM in Taxation at the University of Denver where she also received her law degree and a master’s degree in business. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Michigan.
Four other directors previously elected to three-year terms remain on the board.
Ann D. Fillingham, an attorney at Dykema in Lansing, Mich., and Joseph “Jody” E. Smith, a shareholder of Maynard Cooper & Gale in Birminghan, Ala., have terms expiring in 2018.
Perry E. Israel, a sole practitioner in Sacramento, Calif., and Carol J. McCoog, a partner in the Portland, Ore. office of Hawkins, Delafield & Wood, have terms expiring in 2019.
