Public Finance Derivatives
Swaps and Derivative InstrumentsSidley has extensive experience with the full range of derivative products, particularly interest rate swaps - a reflection of the increasing popularity of derivative products among sophisticated municipal issuers. Our activity includes not only participation in specific transactions as bond counsel or underwriters’ counsel, but also includes work for underwriters and other financial services providers in the development of derivative products. We have served as bond counsel or underwriters’ counsel in connection with over $5 billion of financings involving derivative products in the last three years. We have served as swap counsel (with primary responsibility for negotiating with all potential swap counterparties and documenting all executed swap transactions) on well over $3 billion of swaps for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its issuing agencies, and on nearly $1.5 billion of competitive swaps entered in by The Department of Water Resources of the State of California in connection with the historic $11.26 billion offering of power supply revenue bonds by DWR.
Our lawyers have also established a competitive swap program for our clients and have developed an ongoing guide for certain municipal clients so that they are aware of their ongoing responsibilities under the swap documents.
Sidley brings the full resources of our
Investment Funds, Advisers and Derivatives group when structuring and documenting municipal transactions involving derivatives, including swaps, futures, options, collars, repurchase agreements and participation agreements. Sidley’s public finance, corporate, banking, securitization and real estate clients, as well as the group’s investment fund clients, utilize these services. Our lawyers’ transactional experience includes representing dealers and end-users in credit default swaps on portfolio and single name exposures and total return swaps and options on equity securities, hedge funds, loans and other assets, as well as the representation of companies in hedging currency, commodity, credit and interest rate risk through swaps and other derivatives transactions. In the course of these representations, lawyers have documented hundreds of ISDA master agreements and other industry standard agreements. The firm is a member of ISDA, and our lawyers have been major participants in the global development of this practice area, including serving on ISDA drafting committees and task forces.
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