Bill Doyle

has almost 30 years of experience as a public finance lawyer, including almost 25 years at Orrick.

Although he serves primarily as bond counsel, Bill also works as underwriter's counsel, disclosure counsel and other special counsel on state and local government financings.

Bill has worked on public finance transactions in California, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Oregon, as well as in the Southeast, the Northeast and the Midwest. During the first five years of his public finance practice, Bill worked at what was then Preston, Thorgrimson, Ellis & Holman in Seattle (now an office of K&L/Gates).

Bill has experience with virtually every type of structure utilized in public finance. These include:

Fixed rate, variable rate, multi-modal, tender option, auction rate, index rate and other financings
Financings backed by various credit and liquidity facilities, including municipal bond insurance, letters of credit and standby bond purchase agreements
Commercial paper programs, bond anticipation notes and other shorter-term financings
General obligation bond, enterprise revenue bond, lease revenue bond, certificates of participation, special tax revenue bond, conduit and other financings
Financings through joint powers authorities, non-profit corporations, special authorities and districts, and special purpose municipal corporations
Various refundings, including advance and synthetic advance refundings, public tender offers and private secondary market purchase transactions
Transactions utilizing interest rate swaps and other derivative instruments

Bill has worked with innumerable state and local governments. He has also worked with all the major national investment banking firms and most of the regional firms on the West Coast, including sometimes as their counsel.

Bill's particular experience includes the following.

Airport and Port Financing:

Bill has worked on more than $10 billion of Airport financings, consisting of more than 75 issues, including:

General airport revenue bond financings
Financings secured by airport passenger facilities charges
Special facilities financings secured by airline lease or other revenues, including for United Airlines
Fuel facility financings secured by into-plane fueling charges

Bill has also worked on more than $1 billion in Port and combined Port/Airport financings, including special facilities financings for shipping companies.

Public Power Financing:

Bill has worked on more than $5 billion of municipal electric utility financings, consisting of more than 60 issues, including:

Wholesale and retail electric system financings
Project financings
Hydroelectric, natural gas-fired, geothermal, nuclear and wind generating facilities

Bill also has worked on more than $1 billion in tax-exempt pre-paid natural gas financings around the country. These are complex transactions to secure long-term natural gas supplies for municipal electric and gas utilities at a net fixed price and on a take-and-pay basis.

Bill has significant expertise with respect to commodities swap transactions for both electricity and natural gas.

Bill has also drafted and negotiated long-term power purchase agreements, natural gas purchase and sale agreements, project operating agreements and other related agreements.

Working with Orrick's Public Finance Tax Group, Bill has helped secure private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service which have established important principles benefiting public power issuers, and which have saved issuers tens of millions of dollars in debt service costs.

Public Finance Renewable Energy Projects/ Public Private Partnerships:

Bill has worked on wind energy financings aggregating over $600 million, including a 62-unit 136 MW project in Southwestern Washington. These have included privately developed, owned and/or operated projects, and the use of tax-exempt prepayment financing structures.

Water and Wastewater Financing:

Bill has worked on a wide variety of revenue bond financings for some of the largest retail municipal water and wastewater utilities in California.

Lease Revenue Bonds and Certificates of Participation ("COPs"):

Bill has extensive experience on financings structured to avoid voter approval and other requirements for both general fund-backed and enterprise revenue-backed state and local government credits in California, Washington and other jurisdictions. These include:

The development of program documents, and serving as bond counsel, for the State of Washington's state agency and local government pooled COPs programs
California "Offner-Dean" (or "abatement") lease-based financings payable from general fund revenues, including financings using joint powers authorities, non-profit corporations and passive trusts
Washington "subject to appropriation" lease-based financings
California electric utility COPs financings utilizing lease and installment purchase structures

Convention, Conference and Special Events Center, Stadium, and Hotel Financings:

Bill has worked on numerous financings for major league stadiums, large convention centers, and regional and local conference and multi-use special events centers. These financings, which often are complex, typically involve multiple public and private revenue sources, including hotel/motel taxes, local option sales taxes, ticket revenues, parking revenues, use agreements with sports teams and other enterprises, naming rights agreements, private box and personal seat license agreements, food & beverage agreements, and pouring rights agreements, as well as private management contracts.

Bill has also worked on financings for hotel projects undertaken by cities and airports. These projects are owned by local governments but typically are operated by major hotel chains. These financings share many of the complexities of stadium, convention center and special events center projects.

Public Finance Credit Enhancement:

Bill has worked on the drafting and negotiation of letter of credit agreements, revolving credit agreements, standby bond purchase and other liquidity agreements, municipal bond insurance, reserve fund surety and insurance policies, structured bond insurance products and other similar agreements with respect to a wide variety of different municipal financings, and with all the major municipal bond insurance companies (present and former), and most of the major national and international banks which participate in the municipal credit enhancement markets.

Swaps and Other Hedges:

Bill has extensive experience with the negotiation and execution of various debt- and investment-related hedging instruments and agreements, including interest rate swaps of various types (with aggregate notional amounts in excess of $1 billion), and master repurchase agreements and forward purchase and sale agreements, primarily for the investment of bond proceeds. Bill was the principal draftsperson for Washington State's interest rate swap legislation.

Securities Laws and Disclosure Issues:

Bill has extensive knowledge and experience with federal securities laws issues in public finance, including both initial and continuing disclosure issues, material events disclosure, public statements liability, public offerings and private placements, tender offers, and other matters.