Panorama view of the Woodrow Wilson Plaza

Municipal Bond Recovery

We have a long-standing national reputation for formulating and implementing creative and effective solutions to maximize recovery in connection with troubled municipal bond issuances.

Unsurpassed Insight & Broad Experience

The ArentFox Schiff Municipal Bond Recovery Team is an integrated interdisciplinary team of attorneys, drawn broadly from the firm’s nationally recognized practice areas including public finance, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, health care, real estate, not-for-profit, infrastructure, and litigation. This group includes members of our CCRC & Senior Living Task Force, a highly skilled and specialized group of lawyers with municipal bond, health care regulatory, and restructuring experience on CCRCs and senior living projects.

We have represented a broad cross-section of buy-side clients and bond insurers in connection with every aspect of distressed financing, from structuring creditor-friendly financings as purchaser’s counsel to completing complex and sophisticated workouts and restructurings both in and out of court, including through foreclosures and in bankruptcy. 

The Municipal Bond Recovery Team brings together the necessary experience to provide practical result-oriented advice and leadership to the efficient and effective resolution of distressed credits. In addition, our team advises institutional investors, bond holders and credit enhancers on the implications of complicated bond structures and the bankruptcy risks associated with these structures. 

The core driver of our team’s success in maximizing creditor recovery is a deep multi-disciplinary understanding of the bond market, the structure and documentation of bond transactions, the regulations governing each distressed sector, the tax rules relating to tax-exempt bonds, securities laws as applied to municipal issues, and the applicability of Chapters 9 and 11 of the Bankruptcy Code to bond issues.

Municipal Bankruptcy Strength

The Municipal Bond Recovery Team has deep understanding of and experience in municipal bankruptcy.  Our team members represented important stakeholders in nearly all large municipal bankruptcies in the last decade, including Stockton, San Bernardino, Detroit, and most recently Puerto Rico.  Our team is intimately familiar with unique legal issues implicated in municipal bankruptcies, from bond to constitutional to pension matters.

Representative Engagements

Clients

  • Institutional investors
  • Credit enhancers
  • Indenture trustees
  • Other secured and unsecured creditors

Areas of Focus

  • Tax-exempt Bond Structuring and Risk Analysis
  • Workouts
  • Chapter 9 Municipal Bankruptcy
  • Chapter 11 and other Corporate Bankruptcies
  • Foreclosures
  • Receiverships
  • Mandamus Actions

Credit Types

  • Student Housing
  • Real Estate (multifamily, increment financing, land-backed credits)
  • Economic Development Projects
  • Novel Technology Projects
  • Health Care (CCRCs, assisted living, and nursing homes)
  • Educational Institutions (higher education and charter schools)
  • Energy and Power
  • Airport Facilities
  • Student Loans
  • Municipal Infrastructure
  • Public Enterprise Revenue Bonds (backed by enterprise funds, special taxes, and assessments)
  • General Obligation

 

Key Contacts