Dinsmore & Shohl LLP earned high marks in The Bond Buyer 2018 rankings, including being ranked second overall in Kentucky and Ohio and second in Pennsylvania for the number of transactions. Dinsmore earned a top-25 spot nationally for bond counsel. Thomson Reuters compiles transaction data for The Bond Buyer.

Nationally, Dinsmore completed 133 deals totaling $3.4 billion. In Kentucky, Dinsmore earned the second overall ranking by serving as bond counsel on 33 issues totaling more than $1.2 billion. The firm had 55 issues totaling $1.6 billion, ranking second in Ohio.

Other highlights include:

• Seventh as bond counsel in the Mideast region for total volume of transactions ($1.6 billion)
• As underwriter’s counsel, Dinsmore ranked fifth overall for Nursing Home Long-Term Municipal New Issues
• 10th as bond counsel in Colorado for total volume of transactions ($123.5 million)

“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in December 2017 had a dramatic impact on the bond market in both 2017 and 2018,” said Tom Wilson, chair of Dinsmore’s finance department. “With the early versions of the Tax Act proposing to eliminate the tax-exemption for all private activity bonds and advance refunding bonds, many issuers rushed to market at the end of 2017. The final version of the Tax Act eliminated advance refunding bonds, which was a significant factor in bond issuance volume in 2018 decreasing roughly 25 percent from the previous year. Still, we were able to assist our clients in financing significant capital project with tax-exempt bonds in 2018, particularly in the health care, multi-family housing and education sectors.”

Dinsmore also ranked highly in many of the bond counsel sub-categories Thomson measures. Nationally, the firm ranked second for Commercial Paper Long-Term Municipal New Issues, ninth for Nursing Homes Long-Term Municipal New Issues and 10th for both Pubic Power Long-Term Municipal and Short-Term Municipal New Issues.