Joan N. Stern

Overview

Joan N. Stern has established herself as one of the country’s top public finance attorneys. She concentrates her practice in the areas of general government and education, transportation and utilities, tax and revenue anticipation financing, health care and housing finance, refinancing and working capital finance, project finance, and derivatives transactions. Joan serves clients in the full range of public finance matters, including serving as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, issuer’s counsel, and trustee’s counsel for all types of bond issues, tax-exempt and taxable; drafting debt and finance legislation for a variety of financing programs for governmental and corporate clients; derivative transactions; and enforcement matters involving the SEC and the IRS.

Chambers USA has named Joan one of America’s leading banking and finance lawyers, noting that she has “phenomenal understanding of bond transactions and related tax and corporate issues.” Clients say that her “experience and command of the legal requirements of debt issuance are extraordinary” and she “is refreshingly direct and gets the job done.” Chambers sources also note that she is “extremely knowledgeable, well-versed in the law and easy to work with.”

Representative Matters

• Principal drafter of the statute creating the financial oversight authority for the City of Philadelphia and has served as special counsel to the city in connection with that legislation and the bond issues of that authority.
• As bond counsel, drafted the legislation and bond indenture creating a multi-modal transportation authority in New Jersey, consisting of a toll road, airport, and a group of public parking facilities, and as bond counsel for the authority’s initial financing, provided for the acquisition of all of the transportation assets, including the toll road and airport.
• As bond counsel to the School District of Philadelphia, drafted deficit funding legislation for the school district and served as lead bond counsel for deficit funding bonds, multiple series of bonds for capital improvements and refunding bond issues for the district.
• Served as lead bond counsel for two of the largest pension funding bond issues undertaken; one for a state and the other for a major city. For both issues, drafted the authorizing legislation as well as creating the governing instruments for the bonds.