Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP is proud to bring our nationally recognized tradition for excellence to bear on complex and distressed situations. The Firm earned its initial reputation with a previous generation of Hawkins partners in numerous situations arising during the national depression in the 1930's.  More recently, the Firm enhanced its reputation with its participation in addressing New York City's fiscal crisis in 1975.

 

Our work with public bankruptcy and restructuring over the years has led to the implementation by the States of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut of constitutional and statutory budgetary, fiscal and public debt issuance procedures that have served as models for states across the country. Such experience and expertise have remained current as Hawkins continues to be one of the firms that public entities call in times of fiscal distress.
 

Erie County Industrial Development Agency on behalf of City School District of Buffalo
In 2002, the City of Buffalo was enduring the worst fiscal crisis in its history, approaching its constitutional debt limit, and therefore was unable to issue the amount of debt necessary to finance the approximately $1 billion in deferred capital expenditure necessary to make the school system viable and competitive, as well as in compliance with safety standards.  Serving as bond counsel, Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP helped develop a credit structure based on guaranteed annual appropriations of State Aid.  The strength of this structure enabled the Agency to attract credit enhancement and thereby achieve highly competitive borrowing rates on the first two tranches of bonds.

 

County of Essex, New Jersey
Hawkins served as Bond Counsel to the County in the late 1990s in connection with the issuance of deficit financing bonds, tax anticipation notes, and refunding bonds. A portion of the tax anticipation notes was supported by a letter of credit, a practice not often undertaken in connection with general obligation debt in New Jersey. In addition to the numerous federal tax law concerns typically associated with a complex refunding of this nature,  novel issues were presented by recently released Treasury Regulations applicable to long-term deficit borrowings and by the failure of the federal government to raise the federal debt ceiling thereby making impossible the scheduled acquisition of State and Local Government Securities (SLGs). Hawkins worked with the County and its professionals to develop practical solutions to these problems and to successfully complete the County's financings on a timely basis.

 

City of Troy, New York
Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP has served as Bond Counsel to the Municipal Assistance Corporation for the City of Troy, New York ("Troy MAC") since its inception in 1995. Troy MAC was established by state legislation in reaction to the deteriorating financial condition of the City of Troy, to provide a state public benefit corporation to refinance Troy’s debt, and to restore investor confidence in Troy’s obligations.

In its role as Bond Counsel, the Firm worked together with various New York State officials in developing new legislation, drafting the Troy MAC General Bond Resolution and structuring the security for Troy MAC obligations. The Firm acted as Bond Counsel for several Troy MAC bond anticipation note issues which enabled the City to meet its short-term cash flow requirements and debt service on maturing obligations.

 

Nassau County (New York) Interim Financing Authority
Hawkins was retained in 2000 by the State Division of the Budget to help draft special State legislation creating an oversight and funding mechanism for Nassau County, which was under severe financial distress.  The resulting legislation created the Nassau County Interim Financing Authority (“NIFA”), which has issued bonds in excess of $436,200,000 in order to restructure Nassau County debt, provide budgetary relief, and finance the County’s ongoing capital project needs during its current fiscal crisis.  Hawkins has been engaged as either bond counsel or underwriters’ counsel with respect to several of NIFA’s bond and note issues to date. 

Credit Enhancement
Hawkins has a special expertise in advising clients on the uses, legal aspects and financing documentation of a variety of credit enhancement products. Members of the Firm have represented federal agencies and Government Sponsored Enterprises, banks and insurance companies in developing numerous credit support products. We also have assisted investment banking clients in structuring transactions to take advantage of innovative techniques offered by credit enhancers, and have developed techniques combining a variety of products to address structural, timing, pricing and rating agency concerns. Hawkins regularly advises clients as to the legal status of credit enhancement products under federal and state securities laws, and as to applicable disclosure standards.