With over 20 years practicing exclusively in the area of public finance, Brad Neal provides breadth and depth of experience to each of his clients.  Since joining the Firm in 2000 and becoming a partner in 2008, Brad has worked as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter’s counsel on hundreds of municipal financings over a wide spectrum of types of financings, including land secured, multifamily housing, school district general obligation, property assessed clean energy (“PACE”), general fund and Marks‑Roos pooled financings.

In particular, Brad is recognized as one of the leading attorneys in land secured finance in California.  Since 2002, Brad has worked on hundreds of land secured bond issues as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter’s counsel, as well as hundreds of community facilities district formations, annexations and change proceedings.  Brad represents cities, counties, special districts and school districts throughout California as bond counsel and disclosure counsel in land secured financing’s. Clients have come to appreciate and rely upon Brad’s legal acumen, creativity and willingness to be a “team player” with the other financing team members.  For example, Brad has worked on all of Eastern Municipal Water District’s community facilities district formations and land secured bond issues since 2002, one of the most prolific if not the most prolific community facilities district bond issuers in the entire State of California. 

Recently, the California Debt and Investment Advisory Committee (“CDIAC”) selected Brad to be the presenting attorney on their two part webinar “Fundamentals of Land Secured Financing” which initially aired live November 10, 2020 and November 17, 2020, as well as CDIAC’s in-person “Fundamentals of Land Secured Financing” which was held on November 2, 2022 in Pomona, California.  Brad was also the land secured finance attorney on the “Back to Basics: Funding Public Infrastructure and Services” panel at the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (“CSMFO”) 2023 Annual Conference in February, 2023.

Related to land secured finance, Brad is also one of the leading attorneys in property assessed clean energy bonds in California.  Brad has acted as bond counsel on hundreds of PACE bond issues since 2016, having represented multiple issuers of both residential and commercial PACE bonds. Brad’s PACE bond practice continues to grow, as Brad’s reputation for being responsive to tight deadlines, inherent in PACE bond issues, has grown among California PACE program administrators. 

Brad also specializes in multifamily housing finance. Brad has worked as bond counsel on a variety of multifamily financings, many of which included low income housing tax credits, HOME loans and HUD Section 8 project-based vouchers, and multiple layers of financing.  Brad moderated a panel discussion at The Bond Buyer’s California Public Finance Conference in September 2017 on issues relating to California’s need for affordable housing entitled, “Housing: Delivering Units to Meet Critical Needs.” 

Representative matters include:

  • Community Facilities District No. 2016-1 of the Root Creek Water District Improvement Area No. 1 and Improvement Area No. 2 Series 2021 Special Tax Bonds. In addition to forming this community facilities district, Brad acted as bond counsel and disclosure counsel on its initial $8.4 million bond issue which financed public water improvements for the initial stages of residential development within the community facilities district.  The community facilities district includes the initial stages of one of the largest master-planned communities in Madera County, north of Fresno, known as “Riverstone.”  Riverstone is expected to include over 6,000 single family residences at buildout.    
  • Western Riverside Water and Wastewater Financing Authority Local Agency Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2021 Series A-1 and A-2. Brad acted as bond counsel and disclosure counsel on this $25 million Marks-Roos pooled refunding for 12 of the special tax jurisdictions of Eastern Municipal Water District.  The bond issue included multiple series of bonds at the Authority level and local obligations for each of the taxing jurisdictions, and ultimately saved over 4,000 homeowners within Eastern Municipal Water District hundreds to thousands of dollars in special taxes.
  • School Facilities Improvement District No. 1 of the Irvine Unified School District (General Obligation Bonds, 2016 Election, Series 2021C. Brad acted as bond counsel and disclosure counsel on each of Irvine Unified School District’s three general obligation bond issues since 2016, including this $45 million bond issue which generated proceeds used to finance capital improvements within Irvine Unified School District.
  • City of San José Multifamily Housing Revenue Note (Immanuel-Sobrato Community) Series 2021D. Brad represented the City of San Jose as bond counsel on the City’s $35 million bond issue for the Immanuel-Sobrato multifamily housing project, a complex back-to-back private placement note structure with tax credits.

Credentials

Education
  • University of Notre Dame, J.D., cum laude, 1999
  • University of Arizona, B.A., accounting and finance, 1995
  • National Association of Bond Lawyers
  • Orange County Bar Association
  • California
  • Arizona