Natalia N. Pearson-Farrer focuses her practice on public finance and general corporate transactions, with particular experience in post-issuance tax and securities law compliance issues, tax-exempt leasing and economic development. She regularly serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and counsel to borrowers, banks and issuers in connection with virtually every type of public financing transaction, including general obligation bonds, project revenue bonds, contract- and tax-backed obligations, 501(c)(3) bonds, private activity bonds, secured loans, tax abatement transactions and tax anticipation notes.
Ms. Pearson-Farrer has represented domestic and international companies and local governments in a broad range of situations, including:
- Structuring and restructuring debt
- Negotiating, drafting and reviewing a wide variety of commercial contracts
- Accessing capital for facility construction, expansion and relocation
- Negotiating incentive packages (including tax subsidies, grants, facility and equipment leases and low-interest loans) with state and local governments
- Implementing and retaining governmental incentives
- Compliance with and renegotiation of governmental performance thresholds, as well as avoidance of clawbacks
- Assisting with continuing compliance obligations with respect to tax incentives
- Assistance with tax planning, identifying potential problems and risks and other legal guidance and business advice
- Advising regarding corporate governance, including formations, conversions, corporate structuring, corporate resolutions and other matters
Representative engagements, including while with prior firms, include:
- Assisted in serving as legal counsel to the Development Authority of DeKalb County, Georgia, representing the Authority in bond issues for DeKalb County companies, advising the Authority on governmental functions, budgeting, economic development incentives policies, transactions, contracts and employment matters, drafting Authority policies, bylaws and resolutions and preparing property tax abatement financial models for business recruitment
- Served as counsel to developers and investors locating and expanding office, residential, retail and mixed-use projects through land-based infrastructure financing, including tax increment financing, special tax district financing and other capital financing vehicles
- Served as bond counsel and counsel to underwriters, issuers and borrowers in financing transactions involving public infrastructure, urban redevelopment, hospitals, schools, student housing, manufacturing, wastewater treatment and paper recycling
- Served as local counsel to an investor-developer consortium bidding for a multibillion-dollar public-private transportation contract
- Performed due diligence review in connection with the consolidation of two major Illinois healthcare providers
Pro Bono Work
- Drafted pleadings for a civilly committed client whose constitutional rights were violated while detained
- Represented indigent and disabled clients in tenant eviction proceedings
- Researched and developed case strategies in preparation for U.S. Supreme Court review of the constitutionality of mandatory life-without-parole sentences for child offenders
Affiliations
Ms. Pearson-Farrer is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Education
Ms. Pearson-Farrer received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina Central University with a B.A. in journalism.
Admissions
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Maryland