1. ROBERT N. H. CHRISTMAS biographies Services Partner
Robert Christmas practices creditor-oriented business insolvency law as well as complex commercial litigation, with national experience spanning over 29 years.
Services
Mr. Christmas represents commercial and governmental clients in a wide variety of settings involving public bond debt, SPEs and other highly complex public and private financing structures, from review/preparation of financing opinions, transaction structuring, bond disclosures and other issuance-related matters, to formal insolvency proceedings, including of distressed projects and developers (encompassing entities with government subsidies and/or regulation), municipalities and other public authorities, public and private hospitals, cable television transmission facilities, chemical manufacturing facilities, power generation plants, steel manufacturing facilities, educational and health care institutions, museums and other nonprofits, aircraft, transportation infrastructure and harbors/ports, public transit systems and sports teams (NHL and NFL).
 Mr. Christmas’s practice is particularly focused on public finance and he leads the firm’s municipal insolvency practice. He has represented cities, counties, service districts, school districts, public water and electric utilities and authorities, transportation authorities, airports, ports and other public issuers, where the firm is bond, disclosure or underwriter’s counsel, in analyzing bankruptcy matters that arise in connection with their bond issuances. He also currently represents one of the leading rating agencies, advising on the bankruptcy aspects of rated bond issuances. In connection with distressed issuances, he has represented parties in municipal and other public entity insolvencies, both in workout and in proceedings under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, including in the Chapter 9 cases of Jefferson County, Alabama; Stockton, California; Suffolk Regional OTB (New York); Natchez Regional Medical Center (Mississippi); and Detroit, Michigan.
In his litigation practice, Mr. Christmas represents clients in the Federal District and Circuit courts nationwide, with a focus on litigations and appeals arising out of insolvencies, and before the New York State courts at all levels.
Mr. Christmas has published, and also is frequently quoted as an expert, in media nationwide including in The Bond Buyer, Governance, and Fortune, and on CNNfn, Canadian Television, and Bloomberg Radio. He has lectured for the California Society of Municipal Analysts, Practicing Law Institute, Women in Public Finance and the American Corporate Counsel Association, and most recently moderated a panel on legal issues at the January 2017 NFMA Conference on Local Governments in Crisis. He has drafted bond legislation in many jurisdictions, including acting as a co-drafter of the new Illinois securitization statute, and as an advisor to the California Debt Investment Advisory Commission on California’s municipal statutory lien law, SB 222.
ROBERT N. H. CHRISTMAS
Partner
New York:
Education
New York University School of Law, LL.M.
Fordham University School of Law, J.D.,
Assoc. Editor, Fordham Int’l Law Journal
Pomona College, B.A.
Admissions
New York
U.S. District Court,
Southern, Northern, Eastern and
Western Districts of New York
Eastern District of Michigan
U.S. Court of Appeals,
Second Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Ninth Circuit