Muni vet Wong to lead Nixon Peabody’s project finance practice

Virginia Wong, a 27-year veteran of the municipal bond industry, has been chosen to lead Nixon Peabody LLP’s project finance and public finance practice as the firm continues to expand its business.

Wong, who has been with the firm since 1995, takes over the role from Kenneth Lind, who has led the practice since 2018 and plans to retire early next year.

Wong led the team that served as bond counsel on the restructuring of more than $33 billion in Puerto Rico debt this year. The deal represented the largest municipal restructuring in U.S. history, exchanging Puerto Rico’s existing debt for $7.4 billion in new general obligations bonds and $8.7 billion in new GO contingent value instrument notes.

“I’ve been really lucky throughout my career to be able to work on some interesting and sophisticated transactions,” she told The Bond Buyer. “The Puerto Rico restructurings for COFINA [Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp.] and the general obligation restructuring that just closed were two of the more challenging transactions to work on.”

Working on Puerto Rico brought a new perspective to the way the firm looked at transactions, she said, as she got the creditors’ perspective, looked at how to rebuild the credits and understand what went wrong and how to fix it and to leave the government of Puerto Rico in better financial shape.

She said it was great to work with Omar Marrero and his team at the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority and with the other advisors at Ankura and O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

“It was a wonderful team effort to be a part of and a very successful outcome for the government of Puerto Rico,” she said. “It was a very difficult transaction — the first issuance of contingent value instruments by a municipality in the United States. An incredible amount of work went into all of it and I’m very proud of our team.”

Wong has served as bond counsel and as underwriter’s counsel for many muni deals, such as project bond transactions, securitizations and tax-exempt revenue bond financings.

She has also worked with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority and the Sales Tax Securitization Corp. in Chicago.

Additionally, she has represented institutions and foundations in tax-exempt financings, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Whitney Museum. She has worked on public-private partnership financings, which include the Elizabeth River Crossing Project, the Los Angeles Airport People Mover project, C-70 and the Denver Eagle projects in Colorado, and the Goethals Bridge in New York City.

“I’ve gotten to work with the titans of public finance over the course of my career,” she said. “I’m incredibly proud to be a public finance lawyer and the work that we do is so important and has a positive impact on all of our communities.”

The firm’s project finance and public finance practice comprises more than 50 attorneys and professionals and is looking to add.

“Our group is expanding,” Wong said. “We’re adding new associates and new partners. We see a lot of growth in the market and we’re very optimistic about the future.”

Looking ahead, she said, the firm sees lots of opportunities for their clients.

“The markets have obviously changed and there’s some new challenges, but we are also very optimistic and we see a chance to expand the work we are doing,” Wong said. “We’ve always prided ourselves on working on innovative and challenging transactions and finding new ways to help our clients solve their financing issues.”

Lind is expected to retire at the end of January 2023. Prior to joining Nixon Peabody, he was the acting finance director and deputy general counsel for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“We are very appreciative of Ken’s contributions over the years, as his deep industry knowledge, dedication, and thoughtful leadership approach, both internally and externally, have been keys to the practice group’s successes and our reputation for top-notch representation of our clients,” Michael Goldman, chair of the firm’s project finance, infrastructure and real estate department, said in a statement.

Nationally, Nixon Peabody LLP ranked sixth among all muni bond counsel in 2021, according to data from Refinitiv. They did $14.781 billion of business in 138 deals, a market share of 3.2%.