Sarah C. Smith | McCarter & English, LLP

Counseling clients from education, housing and utilities, and health sectors. "Sarah is extremely responsive." —Chambers USA

Sarah Smith is experienced in all aspects of public finance, and serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, issuer’s counsel, underwriter’s counsel, purchaser’s counsel, bank counsel, trustee’s counsel, placement agent counsel, and borrower’s counsel on a variety of transactions for a multitude of issues. She has worked on bond issues in these capacities for senior living facilities, colleges, universities, community colleges, school districts, charter schools, cities, towns, villages, special districts, and other not-for-profit institutions. Additionally, Sarah has served as counsel for bond issues involving affordable housing bonds, airports, clean water, drinking water, education, energy efficiency projects, group homes, nursing homes, senior living facilities, sports stadiums, renewable energy, telecommunications, transportation and public infrastructure. Sarah has drafted and advised on various derivatives including swaps and forward transactions in connection with tax-exempt financings.

Prior to joining the firm, Sarah worked as a public finance attorney at a law firm in Arizona and a national law firm in Wisconsin serving as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter’s counsel, and trustee’s counsel on various tax-exempt and taxable financings.

Sarah has drafted legislation relating to airport and transportation projects, including leading a McCarter team that drafted legislation enabling a Connecticut airport authority to issue bonds on behalf of conduit borrowers to finance airport projects. She also drafted legislation for an Arizona city to accelerate transportation projects and assisted the city in defending the financing of the extension of a light rail project and the new law at the trial and appellate levels. The Arizona Supreme Court denied the appellant’s petition for review, enabling the city to move forward with the project. Sarah also drafted a first-of-its-kind transportation project advance agreement to accelerate the light rail project.

Represented a nonprofit organization as bond counsel and borrower counsel in connection with the issuance of revenue and refunding bonds. The projects included financing and refinancing prior indebtedness and financing renovations for a skilled nursing facility and the construction of additional independent units.

Represented an underwriter in a bond financing for an independent school, the proceeds of which financed renovations to a leased school facility, which involved the resolution of the real property agreements between the landlord and the school, as tenant, complex tax issues with respect to the project and the financing, and the drafting of comprehensive deal-specific bondholders’ risk factors.

Authored new legislation for an Arizona city to accelerate various transportation projects, and assisted such Arizona city in defending its new legislation as well as the financing of its light rail project at both the trial level and the appellate level. The Arizona Supreme Court denied the appellant’s petition for review, which enabled the Arizona city to move forward with the light rail project. We drafted the first-of-its-kind transportation project advance agreement to accelerate such light rail project.

Represented an authority as bond counsel in connection with the complex refinancing of existing bonds and the termination of the related swaps and standby bond purchase agreements. The transaction required the navigation of the timing of the terminations with the pricing of the bonds in a challenging market.

Represented a public agency as bond counsel in connection with the refinancing of three series of Infrastructure Investment Incentive Program (“I-Cubed”) bonds related to three separate Massachusetts public infrastructure projects. The transaction involved the sale of one series of bonds and allocating the proceeds and the savings among the three separate projects. Each project financed public infrastructure improvements necessary to support major private development through an agreement, which was amended for the refinancing, among the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the municipality and a private developer.