JAMES L. COPELAND is counsel in the San Francisco office. He is a member of the firm’s Public Finance practice group.

Mr. Copeland has over 40 years of municipal law and municipal finance experience in most aspects of public finance law, as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter’s counsel and purchaser’s counsel, with an emphasis on land secured (special assessment and Mello-Roos) financings. He has primary responsibility for the firm’s practice in these areas. He recently served as bond counsel on certain redevelopment agency tax increment refunding and new money financings, as well as water and sewer enterprise financings and refinancings. Although his practice is focused primarily in California, he has also served as bond counsel on land secured financings in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan and Nevada, and as purchaser’s counsel for land secured financings in Florida and elsewhere. In addition, during his career, he has served and continues to serve as general counsel to certain public agencies. Combining his general counsel background with a municipal finance practice has enabled him to develop a broad understanding of municipal law issues (e.g. Proposition 218) as they relate to public financings.

Mr. Copeland is active in the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) where he has spoken on “Bond Financings of Wastewater Facilities,” as well as Proposition 218 and other state law matters. He has also spoken at seminars sponsored by the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) on such topics as the “Mechanics of a Bond Sale” and “The Fundamentals of Debt Financing.”