Stephen J. Adnopoz has represented issuers, underwriters, and purchasers of municipal securities, borrowers, providers of credit enhancement and trustees, as well as serving as bond, transaction, and disclosure counsel in hundreds of financings aggregating in excess of $68 billion.  He has substantial experience with governmental, state revolving fund, multi-family housing, pooled security, transportation, private activity, non-profit, senior living, hospital, higher education, and taxable economic development financings, as well as other revenue bond and general obligation financings.  His experience includes public and intrastate offerings, primary and secondary private placements, taxable and tax-exempt securities, construction loans, permanent financings, workouts, and reorganizations in a broad range of financing purposes, methods and structures.  He has also assisted clients in drafting legislation in his more than thirty-five years of municipal finance practice.

Mr. Adnopoz has particular knowledge of and appreciation for the internal processes of investment banks from his experience as in-house counsel to the municipal securities group of a leading bulge bracket broker-dealer.  He is experienced with controlling risk by advising on transaction structures and related legal, regulatory, and reputational considerations.

He has served as counsel in transactions across the country, from Maine to Florida to California, as well as many other states and territories.  Mr. Adnopoz has devoted a substantial portion of his practice to New York State issuers, particularly in serving as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, and/or disclosure counsel for issues by various New York authorities, such as New York State Housing Finance Agency, New York City Transitional Finance Authority, New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, State of New York Mortgage Agency, Empire State Development, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, New York Local Government Assistance Corporation, DASNY, New York Power Authority, New York State Thruway Authority, New York Convention Center Development Corporation, Build NYC Resource Corporation, New York Liberty Development Corporation, Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, and Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority, and in serving as bond counsel to more than 17 industrial development agencies, including New York City, Erie County, Town of Amherst, and Niagara County.  He has further served as bond counsel for a variety of issuers including the State of Illinois, City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, Maine Municipal Bond Bank, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Connecticut Development Authority and Finance Authority of Maine. He is also one of the primary Special Counsel for State Debt for the New York State Office of the State Comptroller and one of the Disclosure and Public Finance Counsel for the New York State Division of the Budget.

Mr. Adnopoz is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, American Bar Association (ABA), and the Municipal Forum of New York, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  He has served as a faculty member for ABA CLE programs and currently serves as Budget Officer of the State and Local Government Section of the ABA, having served for more than six years as Chair of its Public Finance Committee. Mr. Adnopoz has been a panelist at workshops and seminars on municipal bonds in the areas of non-profit financings, taxable obligations, and pooled security/bond banks.  He has also been active in assisting states and municipalities in creating economic development programs.  His most recent publication is “Discrimination Remediation Done Right, Taxation Recalibration a Fright” in Inside the Minds: Navigating Public Finance Trends and Regulations (pp 27-40), Thomson Reuters/Aspatore, 2014.