Jennifer Capasso Mendonca

Jennifer Capasso Mendonça

Partner
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Jennifer Capasso Mendonça is a member of the Firm's Board of Directors. She focuses her practice exclusively on all aspects of taxable and tax-exempt finance for governmental and 501(c)(3) entities, as bond counsel, borrower's counsel, underwriter's counsel, lender’s counsel and disclosure counsel. Her broad-based experience with virtually every type of public finance transaction allows her to provide high-quality and efficient legal service to her clients in connection with all aspects of financing transactions, including structuring, tax law analysis, document drafting and negotiation and closing.

Jennifer Capasso Mendonça is a member of the Firm's Board of Directors. She focuses her practice exclusively on all aspects of taxable and tax-exempt finance for governmental and 501(c)(3) entities, as bond counsel, borrower's counsel, underwriter's counsel, lender’s counsel and disclosure counsel. Her broad-based experience with virtually every type of public finance transaction allows her to provide high-quality and efficient legal service to her clients in connection with all aspects of financing transactions, including structuring, tax law analysis, document drafting and negotiation and closing.

Jennifer’s experience includes:

  • General obligation and revenue bonds for governmental entities
  • Qualified 501(c)(3) bonds for nonprofit institutions, including: colleges and universities, independent and charter schools, hospitals, assisted living and other health care entities, and other charitable organizations
  • Single- and multi-family housing bonds
  • Small issue industrial development bonds
  • Exempt facility bonds

She has extensive experience with both fixed rate and variable rate multimodal debt, public offerings and private placement transactions and derivative products. She also has significant public finance tax law experience, particularly with respect to 501(c)(3) institutions, including assisting clients with IRS audits, VCAP requests, private use analysis and post-issuance compliance.

Jennifer’s representative experience includes:

  • Extensive experience serving as bond counsel, borrower's counsel, underwriter's counsel and lender’s counsel for taxable and tax-exempt borrowings for:
    • Higher education institutions such as Babson College, Bentley University, Brandeis University, Boston University, Brown University, Emerson College, Harvard University, Northeastern University, Suffolk University, Smith College and Williams College, among many others
    • Large and complex health care institutions such as Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston Medical Center, Cape Cod Healthcare and Lahey Health System
    • Independent schools including Boston College High School, Cushing Academy, Groton School and St. John’s Preparatory School
    • Charter schools including Boston Collegiate Charter School, Bridge Boston Charter School, Brooke Charter School, and Foxborough Regional Charter School
  • Serves as bond counsel to the State of Vermont in connection with its general obligation and transportation infrastructure bond financings
  • Serves as bond counsel to the New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank in connection with its various general obligation and revenue bonding programs
  • Serves as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel or issuer’s counsel with respect to a variety of single family and multifamily mortgage revenue bond financings for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, Florida Housing Finance Corporation Illinois Housing Development Authority, Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation and Vermont Housing Finance Agency
  • Serves as lender’s counsel for taxable and tax-exempt borrowings in New England and New York
  • Serves as disclosure counsel to the Massachusetts Port Authority and District of Columbia
  • Tax counsel to nonprofit borrowers and conduit issuers regarding IRS audits of their tax-exempt issues and experience assisting clients with negotiation and settlement with IRS under the Voluntary Closing Agreement Program
  • Assists clients with conducting private use analysis of bond financed facilities and in developing programs to maintain the compliance of their bond issues with applicable federal tax law requirements after the bonds have been issued
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CREDENTIALS
Education
  • J.D., summa cum laude, Boston College Law School, 2006

    Order of the Coif
    Articles Editor, Boston College Law Review

  • M.A., Boston College Lynch School of Education, 2006
  • B.S., Accounting and Information Systems, magna cum laude, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, 2001
Bar Admissions
  • Massachusetts, 2006
Professional Affiliations
    • Fellow, American College of Bond Counsel
    • Member, Massachusetts Bar Association
    • Member, National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL)
    • Steering Committee Member, NABL The Workshop (formerly Bond Attorney’s Workshop) (2017-2019)
Awards & Recognitions
    • Recognized, ESG/Green Financing Deal of the Year, The Bond Buyer (2023)
    • Named, Lawyer of the Year (Boston), The Best Lawyers in America®, Public Finance Law (2022)
    • Named, The Best Lawyers in America®, Public Finance Law (2020-2024)
    • Named, Chambers USA, Public Finance Law (2015-2023)
    • Named, Super Lawyers® Massachusetts Rising Star, Schools & Education (2009-2019)
    • Honoree, Rising Star, The Bond Buyer (2018)
    • Honoree, Top Women of Law, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (2018)
    • Honoree, Up & Coming Lawyer, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (2015)
Professional History
    • Before law school, Jennifer worked as a business consultant for Arthur Andersen LLP and Hitachi Consulting in San Francisco. Her work focused primarily on business process redesign for marketing departments at several major software companies on the West Coast