Title: Counsel
Firm: Nixon Peabody LLP
Age: 37
Terance Walsh loves a challenge. One deal that stands out for stretching his skills was financing a not-for-profit youth sports facility in Long Island. The market was unfavorable and he had to contend with complex real estate and tax issues, politics, and a demanding investors' counsel. It took three attempts over four years to sell the bonds, but Walsh and the team persevered.
As counsel in Nixon Peabody's Rochester, New York, office, Walsh applies that same dedication and commitment to industrial development agencies, local development corporations, municipal utilities and other municipal bond issuers as well as lenders and underwriters in tax-exempt bond and leaseback transactions.
Coming from a family of attorneys, it was an easy decision to attend Syracuse University College of Law after studying history as an undergraduate. Walsh started his law career at a small firm in Syracuse and relocated to Rochester when his wife started her residency at University of Rochester. As Walsh was searching for his next career move, Nixon Peabody was hiring a public finance associate.
"It is really cool to mix different disciplines including municipal law, securities law, tax law and secure transactions," said Walsh.
Walsh joined the firm in 2016 and considers himself lucky to stumble into public finance. He also said he's lucky to have joined a firm that supports him in learning and growing. "I'm always being pushed in the right direction," he said.
As bond counsel, Walsh has financed health care and affordable care facilities, continuing care retirement communities, charter schools and many other nonprofit organizations. Walsh also finds it rewarding to do pro bono work for populations in need, including name changes for those transitioning genders or for other reasons. "It's important to me that my work has meaning," he said.
