Rick Manley serves as bond counsel to cities, towns, school districts and various special purpose districts in Massachusetts and throughout New England. His practice has involved the issuance of taxable and tax-exempt bonds and notes to finance a wide range of projects for local governments, including significant projects in the water, wastewater, airport and sports venue sectors. His work has also involved significant projects for distressed municipal credits. Rick's practice also includes the representation of leading national and regional investment banks in connection with the underwriting of municipal bonds and notes. Rick is listed in the Public Finance Law section of The Best Lawyers in America. Notable Experience · Served as bond counsel to the City of Chelsea, Massachusetts in connection with the issuance of $109 million general obligation school bonds for the City while it was in the midst of state receivership. Transaction involved the development of a debt service reserve fund to backstop general obligation bonds issued to revamp the City's entire school building infrastructure. · Served as bond counsel to the City of Manchester, New Hampshire to develop a new general airport revenue bond resolution for Manchester Airport. In connection with this issue, the City created a new capital structure for the Airport and at the same time, through special legislation, realized substantial savings by execution of a forward swap to permit the synthetic fixed rate refunding of previously issued airport bonds. · Served as bond counsel to the City of Manchester, New Hampshire and developed a stand alone revenue bond structure for the Manchester Water Works, a department of the City. The City's objective was to spin off the water department, making it fully self-supporting and discontinuing the practice of issuing general obligation debt for capital improvements of the water enterprise. · Served as counsel to the City of Manchester, New Hampshire in the development of the Verizon Center, an 8,000 seat sports and entertainment venue, and also with respect to the development of the City's 4,000 seat minor league baseball stadium. In the Verizon Center deal, assisted in development of unique finance structure to establish an insured, limited obligation pledge of the City to repay approximately $50 million lease revenue bonds through dedicated meals and rooms tax revenue, thereby avoiding the need to pledge the City's full faith and credit. · Served as bond counsel to the City of Worcester, Massachusetts in 1998 on the issuance of approximately $220 million pension obligation bonds, the first such issue in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at that time. This transaction involved drafting and negotiation of special legislation to permit the issuance of the bonds and the negotiation of a Memorandum of Understanding between the City and The Commonwealth of Massachusetts governing the establishment of a pension reserve fund by the City. · Bond counsel to the State of Rhode Island in connection with the creation of the State's first commercial paper program for cash flow borrowing, and also the issuance of the State's first variable rate general obligation bonds. In each instance, special legislation was drafted and negotiated to authorize the issues, credit facility documents were created to support the programs, and new disclosure on the terms of each issue was prepared. Recent Speaking Engagements and Publications · "Municipal Relief Act," co-author, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge Client Advisory, August 2010. · "Bond Insurer Downgrades and Material Event Notice Filings," co-author, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP Public Finance Advisory, February 21, 2008. News & Publications June 2011, Client Advisory - SEC Approves MSRB's Proposed Rule Change to Rule G-23 August 2010, Client Advisory - Municipal Relief Act August 10, 2010, Sixty EAPD Attorneys Recognized by the Best Lawyers in America December 2009, Client Advisory - Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds September 1, 2009, 62 EAPD Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers in America 2010 July 10, 2009, Boston's Best Lawyers Recognizes 29 EAPD Attorneys February 4, 2009, 57 EAPD Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers in America 2009 January 2009, Public Finance Advisory February 21, 2008, Public Finance Advisory - Bond Insurer Downgrades and Material Event Notice Filings
Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP October 10, 2007, 57 EAPD Attorneys Recognized as Best Lawyers in America 2008 May 14, 2007, Richard A. Manley, Jr. Joins Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge as Partner in Firm's Public Finance Department Before Edwards Wildman Prior to joining the Firm as a partner in the Public Finance Department, Rick was a partner at Ropes & Gray LLP with responsibility for that firm's city, town and special district bond counsel practice. In this capacity, he represented such clients as the New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank, the City of Manchester, New Hampshire (including Manchester Airport), the Cities of Chelsea, Worcester, Newton, Fall River and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the State of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency. In addition, Rick served as underwriters' counsel to leading investment banking firms, including Citigroup, UBS Securities, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, and for such regional investment banks as RBC Dain Rauscher, First Southwest Company, A.G. Edwards, Corby Capital Markets and Roosevelt & Cross. Prior to law school, Rick had served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Legislature's Special Commission on Local Aid, as a financial advisor to local governments with a large Boston bank, and as a Research Associate with the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. Besides Edwards Wildman Outside of the office, Rick serves as a member of the School Committee in the Town of Weston, Massachusetts. His other interests include jogging, flyfishing, skiing and boating. Industries · Government Memberships · National Association of Bond Lawyers · American College of Bond Counsel |