Biography
Frank D'Ercole is a retired partner of the firm with more than 35 years of experience representing issuers of tax-exempt and taxable bonds as bond counsel and representing underwriters, lenders, borrowers, and trustees in a variety of debt transactions. As bond counsel, he represented many of the largest issuers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.
Frank also served as bond counsel to the State of Connecticut since the early 1970s and was involved in the creation of many of the state's major bond programs. He drafted much of the state's legislation governing the authorization and issuance of municipal and state borrowings. He is especially knowledgeable in the area of transportation infrastructure programs. Frank was instrumental in the development, drafting, and implementation of legislation to create an enterprise fund at Bradley International Airport providing for revenue bonds to fund major airport improvements and for legislation to establish the state's highly innovative Special Tax Obligation Bond program for transportation infrastructure purposes.
Frank had primary responsibility for the firm's service as borrower's counsel and bond counsel to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe in connection with the tribe's issuance of over $1 billion of tax-exempt and taxable indebtedness in a series of unprecedented financing transactions during the 1990s, which were the first borrowings of their kind by a Native American tribe. The tribe was the first Native American tribe to obtain an investment grade rating from the major rating agencies on its obligations. He had primary responsibility for the firm's service, as underwriters' counsel, to syndicates led by Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., UBS PaineWebber Inc., and Goldman Sachs & Co., respectively, in a series of transactions for both the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
Frank represented several municipalities that participated in public-private partnerships with developers of major multiuse development projects in their respective municipalities. Examples are Blue Back Square in West Hartford and the West Avenue (Waypointe) development project in Norwalk. He had primary responsibility for the development of agreements and revenue sources from special services district taxes and parking revenues as security for the repayment of municipal bonds issued to fund the municipal component of the projects.