ALBANY, NY – Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, the Capital Region’s largest law firm, received national recognition at a prestigious awards ceremony December 5, 2006 in New York City from The Bond Buyer, the nation’s most recognized municipal finance publication.

The firm jointly accepted the 2006 “Deal of the Year” award, in the Small Issuer, Northeast Region category, for its participation in the School Campus project with the City School District of Rensselaer, N.Y. honoring the District as one of the nation’s most innovative municipal-bond issuers for transactions which financed a major public infrastructure project.

The District’s sale of $71 million certificates of participation marked an innovative public-private partnership in which a private developer agreed to assume all construction risk and deliver a new school on a “turnkey” basis.

A new state-of –the art K-12 school is expected to be completed December 2007. The developer will not only deliver the school on a “turnkey” basis but will also take responsibility for the re-development of the district’s old facility on the Hudson River front turning the site into high-end residential units and retail space. As part of the innovative deal, the developer will also make
payments to the school district in lieu of taxes for 10 years, up to the amount of the assumed school tax on the old school property until fully developed. The transaction was made possible through the authority provided by a special act of the New York legislature that creates exceptions to the regular constitutional and statutory regime under which New York State school
districts authorize and issue tax-supported debt and bid contracts.

“Whiteman Osterman & Hanna is very proud to be recognized by Bond Buyer for the ‘Deal of the Year’. The City School District of Rensselaer issue demonstrates that with creative solutions such as the enabling legislation and partnerships between private developers and state regulators, positive projects can be accomplished to benefit all parties,” according to Mr. Hanna, a founding partner of the firm.

In 2002, The Bond Buyer launched the “Deal of the Year” awards to honor the public-sector issuers of the most innovative deals in the market each year. Judging criteria include the potential for the transaction to be used as a model by other states and local governments around the nation, and the extent to which the issuer used new financing techniques or credit structures.

The 2006 awards, based on a record 116 nominations this year, covered deals that closed between October 1, 2005 and September 30, 2006.

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Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, the Capital Region’s largest law firm, has developed a reputation for innovative solutions and professional leadership. Through integrated, firm-wide collaboration, it offers clients a broad range of expertise in business, commercial, education, energy, utility regulation, environmental, land use, health care, immigration, intellectual property, labor, employment, real estate development, tax and telecommunications law as well as estate planning and administration, government relations and litigation.