23 A single mother’s paycheck goes mostly to a rent-to-own store. A family faces homelessness as their home is being foreclosed. A college graduate tries to get out of poverty, but student loan debt holds her back.These are just a few of the low-income consumers that the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) aims to protect. From its headquarters in Boston, NCLC works with attorneys across the country as well as the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau to combat unfair lending and debt collection practices, help consumers get mortgages refinanced, and encourage the regulatory environment to work for consumers and not against them. The goal is a more just economy for vulnerable consumers and those in need.“These are folks who have very few assets to begin with, and the great recession hit them particularly hard. They lost jobs, had their homes foreclosed on, and saw their credit card debt soar as they tried to make ends meet,”says NCLC’s Director of Finance Margaret Kohler. Back in 2007, Mintz Levin began assisting NCLC with acquiring its headquarters building so the nonprofit could devote more of its resources to its work on behalf of vulnerable consumers. “In helping NCLC move from leasing to owning and then rehabbing its headquarters space seven years ago, Mintz Levin and the rest of the NCLC team used a relatively new federal urban redevelopment incentive program—New Markets Tax Credits—in combination with tax-exempt bonds to deliver the lowest possible cost to NCLC,” says Greg Sandomirsky, an attorney in Mintz Levin’s Public Finance Practice. “This innovative financing used the bonds as leverage in a manner that allowed certain special investors to agree to forgive repayment of a portion of their investment in the project.” In 2013, NCLC had an opportunity to refinance its bonds at a lower rate. Yet finding a deal that would work for everyone involved was difficult, until NCLC again enlisted the help of Mintz Levin. “Greg and I knew we could get NCLC a lower interest rate to reduce its monthly payment without the complicated and costly restructuring originally proposed by the lender’s counsel,” says attorney Poonam Patidar, who worked with Greg on the refinancing. “We had to ‘sell’our theory to the bond counsel, bank counsel, investor’s counsel, and tax credit counsel, and had to keep their attention on the deal despite the end-of-the-year rush that many transactional lawyers face. While the savings was small in comparison to large complex transactions, it made a huge impact for NCLC. We eventually closed on New Year’s Eve.” The new refinancing means NCLC pays less for its occupancy costs, and has more money to devote to its mission. It’s smart business for everyone NCLC touches. “The original deal orchestrated by Mintz Levin saved NCLC a couple million dollars. This new refinancing saves NCLC an additional million or so. All this ‘new’ resource simply allows us to devote more time and energy to representing the needs of low-income consumers across the country. These have been especially heady times for our advocacy, and we would not be as fully engaged without these deals and without the generous help of Mintz Levin.” Will Ogburn Executive Director National Consumer Law Center Margaret Kohler Director of Finance National Consumer Law Center Loan Rangers