Vanessa S. Legbandt

Vanessa’s early roots as a redevelopment lawyer give her a firm grasp on her clients’ goals and objectives, and the perspective to explore alternatives to their legal restrictions. When her clients are faced with complicated or uncertain legal concerns, Vanessa thoroughly evaluates the factual circumstances against all applicable laws and regulations before presenting the options and approaches that best suit their needs. Clients appreciate her simple, straightforward transaction documents and her ability to resolve any issues quickly. Undaunted by the fast pace of municipal financings, Vanessa meets all required timeframes and staffs transactions appropriately to ensure she obtains the most beneficial financing for her clients. Working among large and varied finance teams in transactions, she is a responsive and adaptable leader committed to making sure all deadlines are met, including issuer agenda deadlines and any timeframes needed for third-party review and approval.

Over the years Vanessa has also guided numerous redevelopment successor agencies through complicated financings that required approval from oversight boards and the California Department of Finance.  She has helped cities from San Diego to Hercules navigate the expenditure of bond proceeds, the financing of balloon payments and debt service spikes, and myriad pass-through considerations. 

Vanessa’s representative matters include:

Vanessa served bond counsel to the Los Angeles County Public Works Financing Authority in connection with the approximately $252 million issuance of two rounds of lease revenue bonds, Vanessa and her team overcame complex federal tax considerations to allow a portion of the financing to be treated as a 501(c)(3) bond for federal tax purposes. This fast-paced lease revenue financing involved significant due diligence regarding the federal tax status of the non-profit operator of a county-owned hospital and resulted in a lower cost of borrowing for the county.

Vanessa served as bond and disclosure counsel in connection with the issuance of Sales Tax Revenue bonds by the Monterey Park Financing Authority, secured by the City of Monterey Park and share of Measure, Measure M, and Proposition C sales tax revenue to finance transportation and transit improvements in the city.  

Vanessa served as bond counsel and disclosure counsel to the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego in connection with the issuance of multiple series of tax allocation refunding bonds in 2016 and 2017.  When due diligence discovered that the city had formerly rescinded a 33676 election from one project area and that those payments were no longer needed to support the new bonds, the Stradling team advised the city to retract the 33676 election.  As a result, the city’s general fund expects to receive $50 million throughout the life of the redevelopment plan.

Vanessa served as the bond and disclosure counsel to the Chula Vista Bayfront Facilities Financing Authority in connection with the successful issuance of $382 million of Revenue Bonds to finance a portion of the Gaylord Pacific Resort Hotel and Convention Center and related public improvements.