Annual Report 2017

2017
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BOND LAWYERS
ANNUAL
REPORT

ANNUAL
REPORT
2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mission & Vision.....................................1
Executive Summary...............................2
Financials................................................3
NABL Membership Snapshot................4
Education Summary...............................5
Legislative & Regulatory Summary......6
Scholarship Program.............................7
2017 Award Winners..............................8
A Look Ahead..........................................9

Mission & Vision
NABL’S
MISSION
& VISION
Promote the importance and
integrity of the municipal market
by advancing the understanding
of and compliance with the law
affecting public finance.
Educate its members in
the laws affecting state
and municipal bonds.
Provide the NABL membership
with a forum for the exchange
of ideas as to law, and practice,
and the tools that help them
continually improve the state
of the art in the field.
Provide commentary and recommendations
at the federal, state and local levels with
respect to legislation, regulations,
and rulings affecting bonds, and on
occasion submits friend of the court
briefs or memoranda in connection
with court or administrative proceedings.
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Executive Summary
2016-17 President
Clifford M. Gerber
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
San Francisco, CA
My term as President was a busy and productive year for the
organization and its Board of Directors. I tried to keep my finger
on the pulse of things, though it was not always easy. From addressing
pronouncements from the regulators in Washington, to
providing NABL members with the educational content and opportunities
that derive from our core mission, to enhancing our
collaborative efforts with our industry counterparts, to elevating
our game as lawyers in municipal finance, there was a lot to get
done. It goes without saying the year was a turbulent one; we
needed to stay agile and proactive while maintaining our focus
on key issues.
Among our more notable achievements as an organization:
• At the beginning of my term we submitted comments to the IRS and Treasury on management and service
contracts, which led to the issuance of new guidelines in Revenue Procedure 2017-13.
• As part of our winter meetings and for the first time, the Board went to Capitol Hill to visit with Congressional
staff to advocate for the preservation of the tax exemption on state and local bonds. Though the elimination of
advance refundings told us that we weren’t fully successful in our effort, it also delivered an important message
to the industry that we all need to stay vigilant with respect to the status of state and local bonds.
• Last spring, and then again in August, we provided written recommendations to the SEC with
respect to its proposed amendments to Rule 15c2-12 relating to the disclosure of bank loans and other financial
obligations.
• In March the General Law & Practice Committee released the Demystifying DTC: The Depository
Trust Company and the Municipal Market. The paper focuses on how DTC affects a municipal
bond financing from closing to maturity.
• Also in the spring the Board adopted a written Diversity Policy, to promote organization-wide inclusiveness
in NABL Committees, projects and panels.
• In an effort to move toward greater uniformity, NABL and SIFMA collaborated on, and completed during the first
part of 2017, a set of “issue price” documents, which the industry has by and large adopted.
• In June, after years in the making, we released a Model Letter of Underwriter’s Counsel to our
membership.
• After years in the marking, in July we released a comprehensive paper to our membership covering the direct
purchase of state or local bonds by financial institutions.
All in all, I am proud of what we as a Board – and as an organization – accomplished, and I am grateful for the advice
and counsel of my fellow officers and Board colleagues. Even more importantly, I am truly grateful to our dedicated
members who, time and again, are tireless in their participation in NABL’s projects and conferences.
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Financial Summary
TOTAL
REVENUES
$2,903,919
TOTAL
EXPENSES
$2,849,083
ADJUSTED
NET
REVENUE
$54,836
3

Membership Demographics
Membership Snapshot
2362
2350
212 242 96
2738
Total NABL
Members for
2017
212
New NABL
Members for
2017
90
30 29 25
8
Regular Members
Associate Members
Paralegal Members
Retired Members
Student Members
2017 Totals
2016 Totals
Members by Region
► Northeast: 23%
► Southeast: 27%
► Midwest: 23%
► West: 13%
► Southwest: 14%
Members by Gender
67% Male 33% Female
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Education Summary
Tax & Securities
Law Institute
March 9-10
Washington, DC
357 Total Attendees
Fundamentals of
Municipal Bond
Law
April 19-21
Denver, CO
254 Total Attendees
Bond Attorneys’
Workshop
October 4-6, 2017
Chicago, IL
851 Total Attendees
Visit www.nabl.org for future
NABL educational opportunities
Teleconferences
What You Need to Know
About the Final Issue
Price Regulations
January 10, 2017
484 Total Registrants
Issue Price
Documentation
April 24, 2017
425 Total Registrants
Tax Cuts & Jobs Act:
What it Means for the
Muni Market & What
Happens Next?
November 8, 2017
559 Total Registrants
Tax Reform Update -
Part 2
November 28, 2017
493 Total Registrants
Ethics Teleconference:
Risk - The Game of Reduction
of Professional
Exposure, Loss Prevention,
& Bond Counsel
Liability
December 14, 2017
95 Total Registrants
5

Legislative & Regulatory Summary
From Capitol
Hill to You...
NABL’s Office of Governmental Affairs had an exciting 2017 working on your behalf. We’ve been active on Capitol Hill, met
with regulators, participated in industry coalitions, sent numerous policy letters, and produced educational documents. Together
with NABL’s committee leadership, we produce tangible educational and policy documents, white papers, comment
letters, and more.
Tax reform kept us busy the past few years, but nothing quite compared to the flurry of activity we undertook at the end
of 2017 when Congress passed, in record time, sweeping tax reform legislation. In the end, tax-exempt municipal bonds
were preserved, including private activity bonds (PABs), but we lost tax-exempt advance refunding bonds and the ability to
issue new tax credit or direct pay bonds. We worked tirelessly with our membership, many of you calling your Member of
Congress and asking your issuer clients to do the same. We sent a plethora of communications including emails, letters,
one-pagers, background pieces, and more to Capitol Hill. We talked to the press and we exhausted every avenue we had
to preserve all the tools important to the municipal market.
On the regulatory front, we maintain regular communication with the IRS, Treasury, SEC and MSRB. We monitor regulatory
activity and submit comment letters in response to requests for comment on proposals affecting our membership. In
particular for 2017, one of the industry’s success stories occurred when the IRS withdrew its proposed regulations on the
definition of political subdivisions.
We want to thank you for volunteering your time and expertise over the last year and we look forward to another busy year
ahead. For any questions about NABL’s Governmental Affairs activity, please contact Jessica Giroux at jgiroux@nabl.org.
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Scholarship Program
Frederic L. Ballard, Jr. Memorial Scholarship
The National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) offers up to five scholarships to law students, through the
Frederic L Ballard, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Program, to attend the Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law
Seminar every year since 2012. NABL renamed its existing Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law Seminar
scholarship program to honor longtime NABL member Frederic L. “Rick” Ballard, Jr. who passed away in 2014.
The decision to bestow this honor on Mr. Ballard stemmed from his longstanding commitment to educating
young bond attorneys. As Mr. Ballard’s contributions to NABL touched so many of its members, NABL is confident
that the Frederic L. Ballard, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Program will become part of his enduring legacy.
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The number of
scholarship recipients
since 2012
47%
Percentage of
scholarship recipients
who have become
NABL members
Who we look for
Eligible recipients of the
scholarships must be
currently enrolled in the
Doctor of Jurisprudence
Program or Masters of
Law Program at an accredited
law school, and
express interest in pursuing
public finance law.
2017 Frederic L. Ballard, Jr.
Memorial Scholarship Recipients
Pictured from left to right: Taylor
Stockemer, University of Arkansas
at Little Rock School of Law, Portia
Bailey-Bernard, Indiana University
School of Law, Christa Childers,
Florida State University College
of Law, Andrias “Annie” Jones,
University of Texas School of Law,
Jacqueline Hensley, University of
Oklahoma College of Law
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2017 Award Winners
The Bernard P. Friel Medal
William J. Daly
National Association of Bond Lawyers
Washington D.C.
The Bernard P. Friel Medal recognizes distinguished
service in the field of public finance. The Friel Medal
was awarded to NABL’s Director of Governmental Affairs
William Daly who is retiring at the end of 2017.
Awards Committee, Chair Sandy MacLennan said,
“The public finance community and NABL, in particular,
have greatly benefitted from Bill Daly’s experience and
dedication over the course of his career which includes
working on behalf of issuers, bankers and lawyers.”
The Frederick O. Kiel Distinguished
Service Award
Fredric A. Weber
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
Houston, TX
The Frederick O. Kiel Distinguished Service Award recognizes
extraordinary service to NABL over an extended
period of time. The Kiel Award was presented to Fredric
A. Weber of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Houston office.
“Rick Weber’s contributions to NABL are countless and
span more than three decades of committed service to
the organization, including leading NABL as President in
1991-92, assuming the editor’s chair for The Bond Lawyer
in October of 2015, and his continued willingness
to volunteer for new NABL projects (particularly securities
law comment projects). It is an honor to present this
well-deserved award to him,” said Awards Committee
Chair, Sandy MacLennan.
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A Look Ahead
2017-18 President
Sandy M. MacLennan
Squire Patton Boggs US LLP
Tampa, FL
A New Chapter at NABL...
Taking over as President of this organization as the 4th
quarter began and less than 30 days prior to
H.R. 1 being introduced in the House made for a very
short transition period. I was asked by several folks at
the time (somewhat sarcastically) “Aren’t you glad you’re
President of NABL now?” The answer to that question
is “Yes.” For me, personally, it was both stressful and
exciting; a great challenge and an opportunity to make
good on what I promised at the annual meeting in October.
We (the entire NABL Board and NABL) worked
hard, day and night, to follow the progress of the House
bill; we collaborated with all of the other organizations
(the alphabet soup of acronyms) in letter-writing, Hill
contacts, and grass roots organizing; and, most importantly, we kept NABL members as informed as possible
through alerts, teleconferences (2), the Weekly Wrap, and direct contact. As exhilarating as that start to
my term was, there is likely more to come in 2018 when Congress tackles infrastructure financing. On the list
of other things to do in 2018 are:
• Publication of one or more scholarly articles in legal journals on topics of concern to NABL members;
• A 2.0 version of the Model Issue Price documents;
• Completion of a model letter of disclosure counsel;
• Significant headway on an update to the NABL model bond indenture;
• And, as always, monitoring regulatory changes and providing appropriate commentary.
All of these projects are being undertaken by our fellow NABL members who have volunteered their
time. Volunteerism is the key to NABL’s ability to provide meaningful programs for its members and
commentary on regulatory and legislative proposals. We all owe a resounding and continuing “Thank
You” to all the NABL members who raise their hand to lead or participate in a project.
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