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 she rejoined the firm in 2013 after spending a year traveling the world.

Seema serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter’s counsel, purchaser’s counsel, and placement agent’s counsel in a variety of public financings 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 municipal securities.

She also devotes a significant amount of her practice to new and developing areas of finance, including broadband finance and property assessed clean energy (PACE) finance.

She is a frequent panelist and speaker on public finance and regulatory topics, including broadband, PACE, state law matters relevant to local governments, particularly municipalities, and disclosure matters such as post-issuance compliance.

Seema is passionate about the firm’s pro bono program and has assisted clients in attaining asylum, applying for employment authorization documents and maintaining DACA status. 

Seema is heavily involved with the firm’s diversity and recruiting initiatives and is a frequent panelist and participant in diversity programming in Chicago. She is also a member of the Chapman Diversity Scholarship Committee.

Representative Matters

Broadband Finance

  • 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
  • Underwriter’s counsel on a first-of-its-kind limited public offering, the proceeds of which were used to support commercial and residential broadband expansion in Bozeman, Montana and surrounding areas

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Finance

  • Bond counsel on a commercial PACE financing to finance water and energy efficiency measures in a new multifamily housing development
  • Bond counsel on a commercial PACE financing to finance the conversion of a 135,000 SF former warehouse into a hydroponic vertical farm facility
  • Bond counsel on a commercial PACE transaction to finance the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of a group of buildings centered around a historic theatre in the City of Chicago
  • Special counsel to an Illinois county in the state’s first transaction under a commercial PACE financing program, which provided for a roof replacement and solar installation for a commercial property

Memberships

Illinois Government Finance Officers Association

Illinois Local Government Lawyers Association

Admitted

Illinois, 2008

Education

Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., 2008

Rice University, B.A., Political Science, 2004

Notable Engagements

Insights

Presentations

  • "Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Bond Programs," Illinois Government Finance Officers Association Debt Institute, October 2022
  • "ESG: Growing Importance and Focus," Illinois Government Finance Officers Association Annual Conference, September 2022
  • "Local Government Financing Options for Broadband in Illinois," Accelerate Illinois Broadband Infrastructure Planning Program, July 2022
  • "Potential Pitfalls in a Bond Transaction," Illinois Government Finance Officers Association, April 2022
  • "Debt 101: Issuing Bonds," Illinois Government Finance Officers Association, April 2021
  • "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

We have always been focused on finance.

  • 1913
    TS Chapman partners with Henry Cutler to form Chapman and Cutler
  • 1st
    Chapman's first client in 1913 is still a client of the firm today
  • 22
    Diverse financial practices serving regional, national, and global clients
  • 6
    Offices across the country and in key US financial centers

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