Dinsmore & Shohl LLP’s leading national public finance department is now serving clients in the state of Indiana, with the addition of partner Catherine Fanello to the firm’s Indianapolis office. She is joined by five other attorneys across four practice groups who have also come to the firm in Indiana in recent weeks, continuing Dinsmore’s steady national growth trend.

The public finance group, which consists of 50-plus attorneys across the country, won The Bond Buyer’s 2020 Deal of the Year for health care financing, and Dinsmore was named to The Bond Buyer’s top 20 firms for public finance after serving as bond counsel on 243 deals totaling over $5.4 billion in 2020.

Fanello comes to Dinsmore after nearly five years with Krieg DeVault LLP, where she largely represented governmental clients—counties, cities, townships, special taxing districts, etc.—in securing financing, including obligation bonds, tax increment financings, economic development projects, utility financings and more. She also has experience as underwriter’s counsel and placement counsel. And her work in finance, particularly for governmental clients, is backed by years of experience working in government herself, both in Evansville, as a finance officer and deputy controller, and in South Bend, as the city controller. Fanello is also an Indiana licensed CPA.

She cited Dinsmore’s deep bench of talent and national presence as her motivation to join the firm.

“I am excited to join a firm like Dinsmore,” she said. “The depth of Dinsmore’s public finance experience and its national presence will strengthen and enhance my practice, and I look forward to working and collaborating with this talented team.”

“Bringing Catherine on board and incorporating Dinsmore’s nationally recognized public finance team furthers our primary objectives of building on our tradition of exceptional client service and expanding our offerings in Indiana,” said Dinsmore Indianapolis Office Managing Partner Misha Rabinowitch. “We are fortunate to add several talented lawyers to our growing Indianapolis office.”

In the past few weeks alone, attorneys Michael Zaradich (commercial finance), Jacy Rush (tort), Dan Kelley (commercial litigation), Reggie Cloyd (commercial litigation) and Megan Hedrick (intellectual property) also came to Dinsmore in Indianapolis. The group of six, including Fanello, represents 15% growth for the office in a matter of weeks, and Rabinowitch indicated the expansion will continue this fall.

It is an ongoing trend for Dinsmore, which opened its first three offices in Indiana on Jan. 1 (Indianapolis, Bloomington and Evansville). The merger with Wooden McLaughlin that brought Dinsmore into the state is the largest legal merger of 2021 to date.