Robert Feyer

Senior Counsel

San Francisco Office

bobfeyer@orrick.com

Read full biography at www.orrick.com

Robert Feyer is a senior counsel in the San Francisco office of the firm's Public Finance Department. After 40 years representing issuers and underwriters, Mr. Feyer retired from active practice working on bond transactions at the end of 2017, but continues to provide assistance and mentoring within the Department.

From 1986 to his retirement, Bob was the lead bond and disclosure counsel for the State of California, working with a team of lawyers to complete the issuance of an estimated 470 billion dollars of new and refunding general obligation bonds, cash flow notes and warrants and lease revenue obligations, including several of the largest long-term municipal bond issues in U.S. history. He was recognized by The American Lawyer magazine in April 2003 as one of 10 "Dealmakers of the Year" for his work on a $12.5 billion cash flow note borrowing in October 2002.  This work also garnered recognition as a "Lawyer of the Year in Transactional Law" in 2003 from California Lawyer magazine. Bob has spoken often at conferences and webinars on municipal finance and disclosure matters, and is a member of the Securities Law Committee of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

Bob also had an active practice in private activity financing for such purposes as solid waste disposal, pollution control and industrial development. For more than 40 years, he has been a lead bond counsel for the California Pollution Control Financing Authority.

Aside from his municipal bond practice, Bob has worked actively with low-income individuals who seek to obtain legal guardianships for young children.  In May, 2014 Bob received the James P. Preovolos Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Services in Family Law from the Justice and Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

From 1972 to 1975, while on a leave of absence from Orrick, Bob was a Captain in the United States Air Force where he served on the staff of the Air Force General Counsel, and he later served as a legislative assistant to a United States Senator in Washington, D.C.

Posts by: Robert P. Feyer

The SEC Says Cities (and City Officials!) Must Obey Securities Laws, Too

and Posted on

Yesterday the SEC filed an Order Instituting Cease and Desist Proceedings against the City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for violations of Rule 10b-5. The City consented to entry of a Cease and Desist Order. The SEC also issued a Report of Investigation under Section 21(a) discussing “Potential Liability of Public Officials With Regard to Disclosure Obligations in the Secondary Market.”

The headline message from this proceeding is that the SEC found that the City had violated the securities laws through public statements made by public officials, as well as budget documents released during a certain time period, which allegedly failed to disclose material information about the City’s dire financial condition (primarily related to its obligations on certain waste-to-energy project bonds which the City had guaranteed). The reason these statements were deemed so significant is that during this period the City had fallen far behind in releasing its Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (“CAFRs”), so that investors had no other available current financial information. The SEC used this proceeding and its Report of Investigation to re-emphasize the statements made in its 1994 Interpretive Guidance on the obligations of participants in the municipal securities markets, and its 1996 Report following the bankruptcy of Orange County, California, that statements made by public officials which might be “reasonably expected to reach investors and the trading markets” can be subject to antifraud rules, even when such statements are not part of a specific securities offering. READ MORE →