Bryant Miller Olive attorney Ken Artin wraps up successful year as president of the National Association of Bond Lawyers
BMO Shareholder Ken Artin has wrapped up his term as president of the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) after a year that saw the topi c of increasing diversity among public finance lawyers as an important issue for the organization.
Increasing diversity in the public finance practice area, along with increasing diversity of the NABL itself, has been a board priority for several years. Working closely with the Diversity Committee, of which BMO’s Kareem Spratling is the chair, Ken continued to put focus on this issue.
As part of the organization’s mission statement to promote the integrity of the municipal market by advancing the understanding of and compliance with the law affecting public finance, the organization provided comments on several regulatory topics including the determination of the issue price of a bond issue and revised management contract rules.
Ken and NABL also worked on a white paper regarding direct purchase of tax exempt obligations by banks and other financial institutions. These efforts, coupled with actions by other participants in the municipal market, are expected to ultimately result in better disclosure of bank loans.
Finally, Ken and NABL submitted comments on proposed regulations regarding the definition of political subdivisions which would have broad effects on public finance.
NABL is comprised of nearly 3,000 lawyers from across the United States. As president of the NABL, Ken served as its main spokesperson, representing the interests of his fellow public finance professionals.
Ken will remain on the board of directors as the immediate past president for one more year and chair of the nominating committee, which proposes the slate of new directors for the 2017-18 board.
