Locke Lord Public Finance Partners Elected to American College of Bond Counsel Positions

October 5, 2017 – Locke Lord Public Finance Partner Karen Grande has been elected as a Regular Fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel (ACBC), and Todd Cooper has been elected to serve another term on the Board of Directors of the ACBC.

In addition to Grande and Cooper, Locke Lord’s Rick Manley and Walter St. Onge, Public Finance Partners based in the Firm’s Boston office, also hold the distinction of being Fellows of the ACBC.

Grande, based in the Firm’s Providence office, has concentrated her practice in the area of revenue bonds and general obligation bonds and regularly handles state law issues relating to the issuance of bonds. She represents government agencies and instrumentalities and has substantial experience working with first-time issuers. Grande often counsels clients with unusual problems and special situations, and provides broad-based municipal law advice to municipal clients relating to application and amendment of their charters and the drafting and passage of legislation. She served as counsel in the precedent-setting Central Falls Chapter 9 Bankruptcy. Grande was named the Best Lawyers’ 2015 Providence Public Finance “Lawyer of the Year.” She has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Public Finance Law and has been named a Rhode Island Super Lawyer by Thomson Reuters.

Cooper, Managing Partner of the Firm’s Cincinnati office, focuses his practice on tax matters related to public finance, tax-exempt organizations and state and federal tax credits. He has been an ACBC Fellow since 2007, chaired its Membership Selection Committee and has served on its Board of Directors since 2014. Cooper also serves as the Chair of the Tax-Exempt Financing Committee of the American Bar Association Tax Section. Additionally, Cooper is a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Development Board and its Partners in Action Committee and President of the Board of Directors of the Catamount Residential Owners Association in Colorado. He previously served on the Board of Trustees of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, The Summit Country Day School, and St. Ursula Villa. Cooper is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed in Ohio Super Lawyers. He was featured in the 2013 edition of Top Lawyers in Ohio and the 2012 and 2013 editions of Who’s Who in Greater Cincinnati Law. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Public Finance Law. 

Locke Lord was listed 11th by number of transactions and 18th by value in the bond counsel category in The American Lawyer 2017 Corporate Scorecard. The Firm’s Public Finance Practice Group has one of the largest bond counsel practices in the country and more than 125 years of involvement in the law of public borrowing and the federal tax and securities aspects of public debt obligations.

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Locke Lord is a full-service, international law firm of 20 offices designed to meet clients’ needs around the world. The Firm has a history that spans more than 130 years and is a worldwide leader in the middle market sector. Locke Lord advises clients across a broad spectrum of industries including energy, financial services, fund formation, health care, insurance and reinsurance, private equity and venture capital, public finance, real estate, and technology, media and telecommunications, while providing a wealth of experience through its complex litigation, intellectual property, tax, regulatory and transactional teams.