Hawkins acted as counsel to the two winners of The Bond Buyer’s 2009 Regional Deal of the Year awards. In the first transaction, Hawkins was instrumental in developing the financing structure for the District of Columbia's $801 million income tax secured revenue bonds as Disclosure Counsel. Hawkins assisted the District over a two-year period in structuring the program, meeting with the rating agencies and drafting the authorizing legislation. The resulting structure, which gives the bondholders a first lien on and pledge of personal income taxes and business franchise taxes superior to that of the District's general obligation bondholders and any other claimant, yielded significantly higher ratings for these bonds than the rating assigned to the District's general obligation bonds. The Partners on this transaction were Mr. McNally and Mr. Sigal.
In the second transaction, Hawkins was also recognized for its role as Bond Counsel to the Finance Authority of Maine. The $14.5 million taxable waste motor-oil revenue bonds issue will help finance important environmental clean-up at various Maine waste-oil disposal sites. Premiums set by the state legislature and imposed on certain motor vehicle oil sales fund the cost of debt service on the bonds. The Partners that counseled on this transaction included Mr. Roberts and Mr. Turner.
