Overview
Seema Patel is Senior Counsel in Chapman’s Illinois Public Finance Department. Seema started her career at Chapman in 2008 after participating in the firm's summer associate program and rejoined the firm in 2013.
Seema serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter’s counsel, purchaser’s counsel, and placement agent’s counsel in a variety of public financings in Illinois and around the country. Her experience includes financings related to general obligation debt, specific revenue pledges, utilities, exempt facilities, tax increment financing, and property assessed clean energy financings. She routinely advises issuers, investment banks, commercial banks, investors, and municipal advisors on state law, federal tax law, and securities law matters related to the structure and sale of governmental obligations.
Seema is a frequent panelist and speaker on public finance and regulatory topics, including post-issuance compliance, state law matters relevant to local governments, particularly municipalities, and disclosure matters.
Seema is heavily involved with the firm’s diversity and recruiting initiatives and is a frequent panelist and participant in diversity programming in Chicago.
Practice Focus
Admitted
Illinois, 2008
Education
Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., 2008
- Membership and Comment Editor, Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights
Rice University, B.A., Political Science (concentration in Comparative Politics), 2004
Notable Engagements
Illinois’s First C-PACE FinancingChapman served as special counsel to an Illinois county in the state’s first transaction under a commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) financing program, which allows property owners to obtain upfront financing from private capital providers for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in new and existing buildings. Funding is secured by a special assessment lien on the property and is repaid as a line item on the owners’ property tax bill. The financing, which closed on August 30, 2019, provided for a roof replacement and solar installation for a commercial property in DuPage County.
Innovations in Broadband AccessChapman served as underwriter’s counsel in a series of bond transactions that financed the expansion of business and residential broadband access in Utah, particularly in underserved rural areas, by a community-owned open access fiber optic network. The bond financings provided the community-owned network with the funds to build the fiber infrastructure, which is then accessed by independent internet service providers in a competitive marketplace. This innovative open access network model helps new service providers enter the market, lowers high-speed internet costs for users, and promotes economic development. Future expansion within Utah is planned.
Insights
Presentations
- “The Basics of Bonds for Park Districts and Non-Home Rule Communities,” Illinois Government Finance Officers Association Annual Conference, September 2019
- “Debt 101: Issuing Bonds” (Webinar), Illinois Government Finance Officers Association, March 2019