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Meghan B. Burke

Member

[email protected]

+1.617.348.1663

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Meghan is a nationally recognized public finance attorney. She has extensive experience serving as bond counsel, borrower’s counsel, underwriter’s counsel, and disclosure counsel in a wide range of tax-exempt and taxable municipal securities transactions. Meghan represents governmental, quasi-governmental, and nonprofit issuers and borrowers, advising on the legal structuring of general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, and 501(c)(3) conduit financings primarily funding infrastructure, education, and economic development initiatives.

Meghan also chairs Mintz’s Education Practice Group, where she coordinates multidisciplinary legal services for public and private colleges, universities, and independent schools. 

Meghan is sought after for her innovative work in structuring public-private partnerships (P3s) across various sectors. Her vast experience on these transactions includes considerable work structuring the financing and legal frameworks for student housing and other projects across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Her practice includes advising on SEC Rule 15c2-12 continuing disclosure obligations and other post-issuance compliance. 

Having worked on the first interest swap in the municipal marked in 1990, Meghan has applied her expertise with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) documents in connection with a range of hedging transactions across a number of industries, including without limitation commodities hedges, currency swaps, and interest rate swaps.

A respected leader in the municipal finance industry, Meghan is a past board member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, a former vice president of the national Women in Public Finance, and president of Boston Women in Public Finance. She received the Freda Johnson Award, honoring her as a trailblazer, mentor, and advocate for women in the public finance industry.

Experience

  • Served as bond counsel to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), one of the country’s largest transit agencies, since 1995. During that time, she has helped create several different credits, including drafting legislation providing MBTA a dedicated revenue source. In addition to billions of dollars of capital markets transactions, including long-term bonds, commercial paper, multi-model bonds, she also represented the MBTA in connection with secured loans from the US Department of Transportation Build America Bureau’s Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan programs, cross-border and leveraged rolling stock leases, and other transactions.
  • Served as bond counsel to the Vermont Bond Bank since 1995. In addition to the pooled loan program providing financing to local municipal entities in Vermont, she also helped establish an energy efficiency loan program funded from a zero-interest loan from the US Department of Agriculture.
  • Served as counsel to several private universities and as bond counsel in connection with a public-private partnership for a new student housing facility.
  • Served as bond counsel to Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corporation for their Student Housing Revenue Bonds (PRG-RI Properties URI LLC) Senior Series 2025A & Subordinate Series 2025B, the first public-private partnership in Rhode Island to fund three housing projects at the University of Rhode Island.

Representative Underwriter’s Counsel Matters

  • All offerings for the benefit of Beth Israel Lahey Health, Dartmouth Health, and UMass Memorial Obligated Groups.
  • Nearly all issuances of bonds by the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) since 1990.
  • Higher-education financings for many institutions in the Northeast and Washington, DC.
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viewpoints

Proposed IRS regulations would prohibit race-based policies at private schools and could affect 501(c)(3) status, scholarships, and bonds.

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2024 Pre-Election Analysis: Infrastructure

September 12, 2024 | Advisory | By R. Neal Martin, Frank C. Guinta, Meghan Burke

Read about the potential implications of the 2024 general election for infrastructure policy for the incoming presidential administration and the 119th Congress. 

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New Legislation Would Expand the Use of Municipal Bonds

May 15, 2024 | Alert | By R. Neal Martin, Charles Samuels, Matthew O. Page, Christie Martin, Meghan Burke, Poonam Patidar

Read about the Local Infrastructure Financing Tools (LIFT) Act, pending legislation that calls for policy changes and types of bonds that could be used by governments and nonprofits nationwide for a range of public infrastructure and capital improvement projects.

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Tax Reform: The Threat of Annihilation of Tax-Exempt Financing

November 9, 2017 | Blog | By Charles Samuels, Meghan Burke, John Regier

Mintz Levin's Chuck Samuels, Meghan Burke, Len Weiser-Varon, and John Regier discussed the new tax reform bill in a webinar entitled "Tax Reform: The Threat of Annihilation of Tax Exempt Financing.” 
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Public financing, including tax-exempt bond financing, of facilities used by professional sport teams has long been a controversial topic, with advocates and opponents disagreeing over whether the public benefits sufficiently to justify public subsidies. 
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GAME OVER FOR TAX-EXEMPT FINANCING OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS STADIUMS?

June 20, 2017 | Blog | By Meghan Burke, Poonam Patidar

Public financing, including tax-exempt bond financing, of facilities used by professional sport teams has long been a controversial topic, with advocates and opponents disagreeing over whether the benefits sufficiently to justify public subsidies. 
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Please join us on September 29th at 1 pm ET as we cover the recently proposed 457(f) regulations. This one-hour webinar will offer employers more than just a summary of the rule.
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In a recent article by our colleague Patricia Moran of Mintz Levin’s Employment Labor and Benefits practice, new light is shed regarding the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) effects on health insurance stipends provided to students at educational institutions.
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Recently, our colleague Patricia Moran contributed an article to Employment Matters, Mintz Levin’s Employment, Labor & Benefits blog, regarding “The Health and Welfare ‘Wrap’ Document: What It Is and Why You Want One”.
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Ray Cotton Named to Best Lawyers in America 2016!

October 28, 2015 | Blog | By Meghan Burke

Our colleague Ray Cotton was recently recognized by Best Lawyers in America as one of the country's top peer-selected lawyers in Education Law.  Best Lawyers is considered the oldest and most highly-respected peer review guide to the legal profession worldwide.
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News & Press

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Events & Speaking

Panelist
Speaker
Oct
9
2023
Conference Reference Image
Speaker
Jan
6
2016

Council of Independent Colleges 2016 Presidents Institute

The Council of Independent Colleges

Lowes Miami Beach Hotel Miami Beach, FL

Chair
Sep
10
2015

Bond Attorneys' Workshop (BAW)

National Association of Bond Lawyers

200 N. Columbus Drive, Chicago, IL

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Recognition & Awards

  • Best Lawyers in America: Public Finance Law (2009 – 2027)

  • Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly: Go-To Higher Education Lawyers (2024)

  • Chambers USA: Massachusetts (Band 1) – Public Finance (2020 – 2026)

  • Chambers USA: Massachusetts (Band 2) – Public Finance (2012 – 2019)

  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Government Finance list (2013 – 2025)

  • Freda Johnson Award, The Bond Buyer and Northeast Women in Public Finance (2015)

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Involvement

  • Advisory Board Member and former President, Boston Women in Public Finance
  • Member, Women in Public Finance, Inc.
  • Member and past Board Member, National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL
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