Robert Doty

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Robert Doty is President of American Governmental Financial Services Company (AGFS), a private firm located in Sacramento, California. Mr. Doty has been involved in several financial and legal roles in the finance industry for more than 35 years. In the process, Mr. Doty has participated in the successful completion of billions of dollars of municipal finance and corporate finance transactions, including representations benefiting more than 150 governmental entities in approximately two dozen states. He has worked with a substantial diversity of credit types in the market for municipal bonds and other municipal securities, as well as numerous corporate credits.

Mr. Doty’s extensive municipal bonds market experience includes roles as financial advisor, investment banker (underwriter), bond counsel, underwriter counsel, issuer disclosure counsel, trustee counsel, developer counsel, investor counsel, and special consultant. He has served as corporate and securities law counsel to private corporations, and has taught corporate law, municipal finance and securities law courses at the University of Houston and Creighton Law School.

Mr. Doty has participated in a wide variety of activities related to municipal securities transactions, including the issuance of municipal bonds, notes, leases, certificates of participation and other municipal securities for many types of governmental securities issuers; workouts of numerous defaulted municipal bonds and other troubled municipal securities issues; tender offers; and federal and state enforcement investigations. The governmental securities issuers benefited by Mr. Doty include cities, multi-state interlocal agencies, water and wastewater agencies, counties, schools, assessment districts, special taxing districts, authorities, colleges, public utilities, state agencies, joint powers or joint action agencies, power authorities, and recreation and park, community service and other forms of special agencies and districts. He has been instrumental in the development of sophisticated pooled and other financing structures.

Mr. Doty has served during his career in the following roles with national municipal securities market organizations--

  • National Federation of Municipal Analysts
    • Member Board of Governors and Executive Committee
    • Chair, Certificate Committee
    • Chair, Disclosure Committee
    • Member, Industry Practices Committee

  • Government Finance Officers Association
    • General Counsel
    • Member, Disclosure Task Force

  • International Municipal Lawyers Association
    • Chair, Vice Chair and Recorder, Section on Taxation, Economic Development and Finance
    • Recorder, Associate Members Department

  • National Association of Independent Public Finance Advisors
    • Vice President
    • Member, Board of Directors
    • Chair, Public Affairs Committee
    • Representative, Muni Council

  • Southern Municipal Finance Society
    • Chair
    • Member, Board of Directors

  • National Association of Bond Lawyers, Member, Special Committee on Securities Law and Disclosure

  • American Bar Association
    • Section of State and Local Government Law
    • Section of Business Law, Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Municipal and Governmental Obligations

  • Municipal Finance Journal
    • Member, Editorial Board
    • Designated Continuing Author, Columns on Municipal Securities Law and Disclosure Developments

  • Muni Council, Chair, Security Committee

Mr. Doty has received the following awards from national associations in the municipal securities market--

  • National Federation of Municipal Analysts, MUNICIPAL INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTION AWARD

  • International Municipal Lawyers Association, MOST OUTSTANDING ASSOCIATE MEMBER AWARD

Mr. Doty is a nationally and regionally recognized authority on public finance, and in particular, aspects of the municipal bonds market relating to municipal securities law, municipal disclosure, fiduciary duties, and roles and responsibilities of parties. He served issuers for two decades in the development of municipal securities disclosure guidelines and procedures for disclosure in connection with municipal bonds and other municipal securities transactions. He has served in more than 100 legal matters as a municipal bond consultant, including without limitation, as a municipal securities expert witness.

Mr. Doty is the author and co-author of several books and chapters and over 70 articles on municipal bonds, corporate finance, and related subjects, including seminal works on municipal securities law and municipal securities disclosure and publications on fiduciary duties and roles and responsibilities of parties in municipal bond offerings and other municipal securities transactions. Mr. Doty's writings have been cited favorably by the Securities and Exchange Commission and in judicial decisions on municipal securities law. He has served in principal drafting roles for the following national and regional market guidance--

  • WHITE PAPER ON EXPERT WORK PRODUCTS (National Federation of Municipal Analysts, Draft 2010) (Principal Drafter)

    • FINANCING PROCEDURES CHECKLISTS (International Municipal Lawyers Association, Exposure Draft 2007) (Principal Drafter)

    • GUIDELINES FOR LEASES AND CERTIFICATES OF PARTICIPATION (California Debt Advisory Commission, 1993) (Coordinator and Principal Drafter for the Project Team)

    • DISCLOSURE GUIDELINES FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SECURITIES (Government Finance Officers Association, 1991 edition) (a principal drafter)

    • DISCLOSURE GUIDELINES FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SECURITIES (Government Finance Officers Association, 1988 edition) (a principal drafter)

    • DISCLOSURE ROLES OF COUNSEL IN STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SECURITIES OFFERINGS (Section of Urban, State and Local Government Law of the American Bar Association, 1987), sponsored by Subcommittee on Municipal and Governmental Obligations, Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities, Section of Corporation, Banking and Business Law, American Bar Association; Section of Urban, State and Local Government Law, American Bar Association; and Committee on Federal Securities Law, National Association of Bond Lawyers (Reporter and Coordinator)

    • OFFICIAL STATEMENTS FOR OFFERINGS OF SECURITIES BY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS-EXAMPLES AND GUIDELINES (Government Finance Officers Association, 1981) (a principal drafter)

    • DISCLOSURE GUIDELINES FOR OFFERINGS OF SECURITIES BY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS (Government Finance Officers Association, 1979 revision) (a principal drafter)

    • DISCLOSURE GUIDELINES FOR OFFERINGS OF SECURITIES BY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS (Government Finance Officers Association, 1976 original version) (a principal drafter)

    • GUIDELINES FOR USE BY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF YEARLY INFORMATION STATEMENTS AND OTHER CURRENT INFORMATION (Government Finance Officers Association, 1979) (a principal drafter)

    • PROCEDURAL STATEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH DISCLOSURE GUIDELINES (Government Finance Officers Association, 1978) (a principal drafter)

    • TENTATIVE DISCLOSURE GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPERS, a precursor for the California Debt Advisory Commission's 1996 Guidelines

Mr. Doty serves frequently as Chair and speaker at national and regional conferences regarding municipal bonds and other municipal securities transactions, including among them, from the late 1980s into this century, the ANNUAL INSTITUTES ON MUNICIPAL FINANCE sponsored by the Practising Law Institute in New York. He has served as a consultant to financial advisors and lawyers on a variety of matters relating to municipal securities law, municipal disclosure and municipal finance, fiduciary duties, and roles and responsibilities of parties. His representations include engagements by legal counsel to municipal bond and other municipal securities issuers, underwriters, bond counsel, trustees, investors and governmental agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the California Department of Corporations, the Office of the California Attorney General, a United States Attorney, a District Attorney, and a special investigative subcommittee of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Mr. Doty was selected as one of a five-member United States delegation formed by the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and by the National Committee on United States-China Relations to consult with officials of the Peoples Republic of China and of the Cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, together with academicians and interested professionals in the PRC, as to the potential functioning of a municipal securities market in the PRC. His role as a member of the delegation was to discuss legal and financial aspects of, and disclosure and due diligence mechanisms for, formation of a municipal securities market for financing environmental infrastructure in the PRC. Following that activity, Mr. Doty consulted with universities, companies and governmental agencies in the PRC, and prepared published papers on financing techniques under Chinese law.

Mr. Doty also served as Co-Chair, with The Honorable Gui Minjie, Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, of the Securities Law Panel at the World Jurist Association's 22nd Biennial Congress in Shanghai to present financing concepts to approximately 1,000 delegates, including Supreme Court Justices, from the United States and approximately 45 other countries.

When appropriate, Mr. Doty has served as a municipal securities expert witness. He has testified as an expert on the finance industry in federal courts in Kentucky and Illinois, and state courts in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia; before Administrative Law Judges of the Securities and Exchange Commission; before arbitration panels of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority; and by video before the special investigative Subcommittee of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Mr. Doty received his Ll.B. from Harvard Law School. He is a member of The State Bar of California (and its Public Law Section); has memberships in bar regulatory associations and authorities in New York, the District of Columbia, Texas (inactive) and Ohio (inactive); is a member of the American Bar Association (Sections of Business Law and State and Local Government Law); and is an associate member of the International Municipal Lawyers Association and the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

For additional information regarding Mr. Doty's experience, background, publications and speaking activities relating to municipal finance, see the pdf file accompanying this web page. Mr. Doty provides consulting services for lawyers, bridging the financial and legal arenas. In litigation contexts, Mr. Doty has provided consulting and municipal bond expert witness services in more than 100 matters. A listing of representations is available upon request.

Please feel free to contact Robert Doty & American Governmental Financial Services
to learn more about how our independent financial consulting services can help you.

Robert W. Doty, President
American Governmental Financial Services (AGFS)
1721 Eastern Avenue, Suite 4
Sacramento, CA 95864-1745 		Phone: (916) 483-7378
Fax: (916) 483-7565
E-mail:
http://www.agfs.com

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Robert W. Doty, President - American Governmental Financial Services

Robert Doty - American Governmental Financial Services Company (AGFS) is a private firm providing services as a municipal securities independent financial advisor to state and local governments for their public finance problems and project funding, and providing municipal bond expert witness and legal consulting services to the legal profession. Robert W Doty and AGFS provide municipal bond financial consultant services to municipal securities issuers, and municipal finance expert witness services, municipal securities expert witness services, municipal disclosure expert witness services, and other legal consulting to lawyers with respect to municipal bonds funding, municipal securities law, municipal bond law, and municipal bond disclosure.