New edition of muni finance law ‘guru’ Robert Fippinger’s treatise released
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Questions posed about public finance securities law issues over the years have been known to prompt yet another one: “What does Fippinger have to say about that?”
“Fippinger” is shorthand for “The Securities Law of Public Finance,” explained attorney Peg Henry. The book debuted in 1988 as a hardcover authored by Robert Fippinger. The fourth edition of Fippinger’s treatise – and the first to include co-authors – was released by the Practising Law Institute Thursday.
“He’s like the guru of municipal finance law,” Ernesto Lanza, an attorney who is the chief regulatory and policy officer of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. Fippinger tapped Lanza along with Henry to serve as co-authors for the new edition, which spans three volumes in binder format and a total of 3,138 pages. The two-volume third edition was published in 2011.
A few years ago, Fippinger found himself wondering whether he could author another edition by himself, in part because he was easing into retirement after a career in public finance law that spanned roughly five decades. In addition to working on the various editions, Fippinger has also provided annual updates to his treatise.
“And of course, when you stop practicing law, you get out of touch with how deals are being done,” said Fippinger, who retired about two years ago. “I began looking around for possible co-authors and it didn’t take me long to determine that Peg and Ernie would be ideal.”
Henry,
Both Henry and Lanza “were particularly well-informed about areas that I was not well-informed about,” said Fippinger, who during his long career had been an associate and a partner at Hawkins Delafield & Wood, a partner at Webster & Sheffield and a partner and senior counsel at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.
Fippinger pointed to Henry’s experience as an in-house counsel at broker-dealers. In addition to Stifel, her resume also reflects in-house roles at Jefferies and UBS.
“We outside lawyers from law firms don’t see the day-to-day activities – what goes on at the trading desk – and the interaction between the trading desk and the issuers and the persons buying securities,” he said. “And Peg has a very strong expertise in that area.”
Fippinger also cited Lanza’s experience in the regulatory area.
“Ernie of course has been at both the [Securities and Exchange Commission] and the MSRB, so he is very much aware of regulatory issues, more than I was,” said Fippinger, who served as chief legal officer at the MSRB from 2015 to 2017.
Lanza, who once served as
“I think there’s an organization of the information that is a little closer to what today’s practice needs are,” Lanza said.
For example, one of the things they endeavored to do was to make the fourth Edition’s third volume a place where in-house counsel at broker-dealers can find the “really core” information they need on a day-to-day basis, he said.
All of volume 3 covers issues relevant to in-house counsel, though two chapters relevant to in-house counsel can also be found in volume 2, a senior legal editor at PLI confirmed.
In addition, the authors “did a lot of updating” regarding enforcement activity, highlighting recent SEC and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority actions, Lanza said.
While it doesn’t do a deep dive into the topic, the fourth edition does address blockchain, identifying certain areas of municipal market structure where decentralized finance has potential to create pressure points, he said.
The fourth edition also talks about a topic that has been increasingly popping up: an area the authors have dubbed “muni-adjacent debt,” Lanza said. For example, if Harvard University or other nonprofits issue bonds through a governmental authority, those are muni bonds and muni bond rules apply, he said.
However, nonprofits like Harvard can also issue bonds directly, Lanza said. Such bonds “have a lot of similarities to muni bonds and some people confuse them,” he said.
“So there’s some elucidation of that,” Lanza said.
The fourth edition also includes chapters by three contributors, Henry said. Among them is a chapter on ESG by contributor Grace Gerretsen, deputy general counsel at Stifel, who Henry described as “quite an expert on the topic.”
“There’s also a new chapter on insolvency disclosure issues,” she said, adding that Daniel McManus, deputy general counsel and head of municipal securities legal & compliance at Stifel, contributed that chapter.
In addition to Gerretsen and McManus, Paul Maco, who is retired, contributed a chapter on municipal placement agent regulation, Henry said.
