Pauline Schneider and Tatjana Misulic, well-known counsel for numerous bond financings for the District of Columbia and other municipal bond issuers, have joined Ballard Spahr’s public finance department.
The two, who moved to Ballard on July 1 from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, leave Orrick’s Washington D.C. public finance group with just two partners, Darrin Glymph and Ed Oswald, and career associate Aviva Roth.
Schneider, special counsel, and Misulic, of counsel, have joined a team of about 10 public finance lawyers at Ballard Spahr. They have worked together for more than a decade on billions of dollars of transactions and have represented state and local governments, other borrowers, underwriters, credit enhancement providers and other transaction participants. At Ballard they are members of the public finance department, the P3 infrastructure group, and the higher education initiative.
“Pauline and Tatjana are an excellent fit for our public finance practice,” Joseph Fanone, managing partner of Ballard’s office here, said in a release. “They have significant experience representing local governments, particularly in the growing Northern Virginia counties. Pauline is a trailblazer in public finance and Tatjana is a rising star. Together they will make our already formidable public finance presence in the district even stronger.”
Schneider, who at 70 has no plans for retirement any time soon, said yesterday of the move to Ballard, “I just thought it made sense ... It’s a better economic structure to operate from for me. So many of my clients are on the East Coast. It’s a totally new adventure for me.”
Schneider joined Orrick in 2006 after having been at the Richmond-based Hunton & Williams for 21 years where she became its first African-American female partner. Before that, she served in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs/Secretary to the Cabinet under President Carter and then as director of the District of Colombia’s office of Intergovernmental relations.
Schneider said Monday she had hoped Orrick’s public finance office would grow more than it has.
Roger Davis, head of public finance at Orrick, said the firm will continue to maintain its public finance presence in the district and that Glymph has become head of that group here.
“We have a Washington, DC presence and adequate resources nationally to support anything that might arise,” he said. “It’s very unusual for a partner to leave in public finance,” Davis added. “I can’t think of any in 25 years, except one who came back after a few years.”
Nationally, Orrick is the top-ranked bond counsel firm. It has been credited with $18.2 billion for 179 issues through June of this year and $31.1 billion for 367 issues last year, according to Thomson Reuters.
Ballard is ranked 27th among bond counsel firms and has been credited with almost $1.6 billion for 48 issues through June. The firm was ranked 25th and was credited with almost $3.6 billion for 97 issues last year.
