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Janet Zeigler is a shareholder in the firm’s Financial Services Department and a member of the Commercial Lending practice group, with a focus on tax-exempt financing transactions for 501(c)(3) organizations, including health care, long term care, cultural and educational facilities.

Ms. Zeigler routinely counsels clients on taxable and tax-exempt financing transactions. During her 20 years of practice, Ms. Zeigler has served as borrower’s counsel, bond counsel or underwriters' counsel for more than 200 issues, totaling over $25 billion. She also counsels clients in connection with the negotiation of bank credit agreements, and provides advice for ongoing tax-exempt bond compliance matters, including secondary market disclosure, IRS audits, “remedial actions” for changes in use of bond financed facilities and information reporting for the IRS Form 990, Schedule K.

Ms. Zeigler is active in civic and industry organizations, and is a member the American Health Lawyers Association, the National Association of Bond Lawyers, the American Bar Association and Women in Public Finance, where she previously served as a board member, secretary and the chair of the strategic development committee. Ms. Zeigler also served on the finance committee for a Montessori school located in the Chicago suburbs.

In recent years, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) have taken numerous actions to address the perceived lack of transparency in the municipal markets, such as:

creating a centralized information repository known as EMMA (Electronic Municipal Market Access System), and
amending the SEC’s Rule 15c2-12 to, among other items: (i) expand the required disclosure of certain “listed events” and (ii) eliminate the prior exemption of variable rate demand obligations (VRDOs) from the reporting requirements of Rule 15c2-12).

In August 2010, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) released its Proposed Accounting Standards Update on Leases which, if enacted, would have essentially eliminated the concept of an operating lease and required recognition of all leases on the balance sheet. For many of our clients, this change would have impacted balance sheets, debt covenants and future real estate transactions. FASB and IASB, after further deliberation and discussion, intend to issue a final standard for leases later in 2011. Health care providers should consult with their legal advisors and their accountants before the effective date of the final rules in order to understand the consequences of such changes.

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Janet E. Zeigler

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