CHICAGO, Ill. - (September 3, 2014) - Bruce Bonjour, a partner and chair of Perkins Coie’s Public Finance practice, has been elected a Fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel. Bruce will be inducted at the College’s annual meeting in Chicago on September 16, 2014.

Bruce’s municipal bond practice started in 1976 when he joined the Dickinson Wright municipal bond group directly out of law school. Among the significant municipal bond transactions Bruce has completed over the years are the purchase of an undivided interest in a coal fired power plant in Michigan, hydro-electric dams in Minnesota, billions of dollars of improvements at McCormick Place in Chicago, the complete renovation of Soldier Field as the home of the Chicago Bears, the largest truck-to-train intermodal facility in the United States and the securitization of the master settlement tobacco payments to fund a constitutionally protected permanent trust fund to further K-12 education in South Dakota.

In 1996, Bruce served as bond counsel for the tax exempt financing of the 800 room McCormick Place Hyatt Hotel, and following that ground-breaking financing, Bruce expanded his practice to represent owners of business and luxury class hotels in conventional financings of hotels in transactions involving debt in excess of $15 billion. More recently, Bruce originated the Perkins Coie New Markets Tax Credit group which is considered one of the national leaders in that form of tax-incentive financings.

The American College of Bond Counsel was formed in 1995 for the purpose of recognizing lawyers who have established reputations among their peers for their skill, experience and high standards of professional and ethical conduct in the practice of bond law. The College believes that a bond lawyer’s expertise can best be judged by his or her peers and has sought to admit to membership in the College only bond lawyers that have long experience and outstanding reputations in the field of municipal bond law. Membership in the College is limited and admission as a Fellow (i.e. member of the College) is a recognition of the lawyer's accomplishments and legal expertise in the field of bond law. Nominees for membership must have at least ten years of “substantial experience in bond law.”

Perkins Coie is a leading international law firm that is known for providing high-value, strategic solutions and extraordinary client service on matters vital to our clients’ success. With more than 1,200 lawyers in offices across the United States and Asia, we provide a full array of corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and regulatory legal advice to a broad range of clients, including many of the world’s most innovative companies and industry leaders as well as public and not-for-profit organizations.

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