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
Practice Focus
Admitted
Illinois, 2008
Education
Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., 2008
Rice University, B.A., Political Science, 2004
Notable Engagements
- Illinois’s First C-PACE Financing
Chapman 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 Access
Chapman 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.
- Montana Broadband Access
Chapman served as 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, expanding access to competing internet service providers who will utilize the network to connect to historically underserved end-customers.
Insights
Presentations
- "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