Matt joined Norton Rose Fulbright's Public Finance group in July of 2015 and has devoted his entire legal career to public finance matters where he serves as bond counsel, underwriter's counsel, disclosure counsel, issuer's counsel, and trustee's counsel on a broad range of public finance transactions across the State of Texas and across the United States.  

Matt's bond counsel representations include a wide range of issuers across the entire State of Texas, including school districts, cities, counties, institutions of higher education, municipal utility districts (MUDs), special utility districts (SUDs), water control and improvement districts (WCIDs), water authorities, regional water authorities, public utility agencies (PUAs), water supply corporations (WSCs), drainage districts, irrigation districts, local government corporations (LGCs), economic development corporations (EDCs), municipal management districts (MMDs), emergency services districts (ESDs), electric and gas utility systems, etc.  The credits supporting these financings include ad valorem tax revenues (general obligation), system revenues (water, electric, gas), tuition revenues, subject to appropriation revenues, sales tax revenues, hotel occupancy tax (or, HOT) revenues, contract revenues (including take-or-pay contracts), special assessment revenues (including revenues generated within a public improvement district, or PID), tax increment revenues (including revenues generated within a tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ), venue tax revenues, parking facility revenues, park revenues, solid waste revenues, jail revenues, convention center revenues, toll revenues, a combination of taxes and/or revenues, etc.  The instruments that evidence these financings take many different forms and are issued pursuant to a public sale (negotiated or competitive bid) or private placement, including significant experience with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) financial assistance programs and Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) financial assistance programs, including the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), Flood Infrastructure Fund (FIF), State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT, SWIRFT), and Texas Water Development Fund (D-Fund).  Matt's role as bond counsel is more holistic and goes well beyond the standard bond counsel role in a typical financing, including pre-financing steps such as participating in capital improvement planning, bond steering committee meetings, bond elections, drafting and negotiating contracts that will support the financing, tax rate management processes, as well as post-issuance steps such as assisting issuers in responding to letters of inquiry from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), compliance with continuing disclosure undertakings, permissible uses of funds, compliance with tax-exempt covenants (spend-down, arbitrage, rebate), paying off debt early (defeasances, redemptions, refundings), etc.

Matt's underwriter's counsel representations include a wide range of underwriters and banks across the entire State of Texas and across the United States, including on the financings described above.  Additionally, Matt has significant underwriter's counsel experience in transportation financings secured, in part, with toll revenues, including Texas Transportation Commission financings and advising the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) on their Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program financings, including Port of Long Beach (California), Hampton Roads (Virginia), and Grand Parkway (Houston).  Matt's role as underwriter's counsel includes drafting and negotiating the bond purchase agreement, reviewing the issuer's compliance with its continuing disclosure undertakings, reviewing and commenting on the offering document, and counseling the underwriter throughout the entire transaction.  Matt has also been a resource to underwriters as they navigate the implementation of the various statutory verifications (SB 13, SB 19) in the State of Texas.  

Prior to joining Norton Rose Fulbright, Matt worked for several years in "Big 4" accounting practicing State and Local Tax and International Tax at major professional services firms in Houston, Texas.