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Diego Figueroa-Rodriguez

Diego R. Figueroa-Rodriguez

Of Counsel
About

Diego R. Figueroa-Rodriguez has represented public issuers and underwriters in over 50 taxable and tax-exempt financing transactions involving the issuance of over US$20 billion of general obligation, revenue, lease-revenue and asset-backed bonds. He has represented issuers in areas related to the financing of electric power, highways and transportation, water, aqueducts and wastewater, ports, housing, infrastructure, public buildings, industrial, tourist, educational, medical and environmental control facilities, among others. These financings have involved multiple types of financing structures, including various modes of credit enhancement, insurance, swaps, interest rate hedges, auction rate securities and tobacco settlement asset-backed bonds. Diego has also prepared legislation, executive orders, by-laws and regulations in connection with financing transactions and advised in the post-issuance compliance and restructuring of municipal obligations.

Principally due to his involvement in the art world as a philanthropist, collector and board member at various cultural institutions, Diego’s experience includes advising artists, museums, galleries, sovereign countries, private foundations, collectors, auction houses and non-profit art organizations on matters involving a wide range of areas including business, intellectual property, finance, litigation, tax and real estate.

Diego served as financial and legal counsel to the president of the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico in a wide range of issues related to the formulation and establishment of public policy, including the design of alternative strategies for the financings offered by the bank related to taxable and tax-exempt obligations, privatization projects and reorganization of government agencies. He has served as counsel to governmental agencies in general legal, business and financing matters, including special projects such as the sale by the government of its ownership in a telecommunications company. Additionally, he has worked with major real estate developers in the financing, design and construction of real estate projects and has studied Chinese law at Renmin University of China, School of Law in Beijing and international law, cultural heritage, and the arts at the University of Siena Facolta di Giurisprudenza in Italy. 

Areas of FocusCorporateFinance
Bar admissionsFloridaNew York

EXPERIENCE

  • Bond counsel to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in the issuance of over US$6 billion of public improvement/refunding bonds, and tax and revenue anticipation notes
  • Bond counsel to the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority in the issuance of approximately US$250 million of revenue bonds and USDA/rural development issues
  • Bond counsel to the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority in the issuance of over US$2.4 billion of transportation revenue/refunding and special facility revenue bonds to finance the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge
  • Bond counsel to the Puerto Rico Infrastructure Financing Authority in the issuance of over US$2 billion of special obligation bonds and revenue bonds (water pollution control revolving funds state matching contribution)
  • Bond counsel to The Children’s Trust Fund in the issuance of over US$1.5 billion of tobacco settlement asset-backed bonds
  • Bond counsel to the Puerto Rico Public Finance Corporation in the issuance of US$390 million in bonds to finance the Super-Aqueduct Project
  • Bond counsel to the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico in the issuance of US$2.8 billion of commercial paper notes
  • Bond counsel to the Puerto Rico Municipal Finance Agency in the issuance of over US$1.3 billion of new and refunding bonds
  • Bond counsel to the University of Puerto Rico in the issuance of US$200 million of university system revenue bonds
  • Bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel to the Puerto Rico Industrial, Tourist, Educational, Medical and Environmental Control Facilities Financing Authority in the issuance of over US$385 million of educational facilities revenue bonds, higher education revenue bonds, hospital revenue bonds, cogeneration facility revenue bonds, environmental control facilities revenue bonds and industrial revenue bonds
  • Bond counsel to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority in the issuance of over US$2.5 billion of power revenue/refunding bonds
  • Bond counsel to the Puerto Rico Public Buildings Authority issuance of over US$2.6 billion of government facilities revenue/refunding bonds
  • Lead government representative in the negotiations and sale of the remaining ownership of the Government of Puerto Rico in the Puerto Rico Telephone Company to a foreign telecommunications company and the sale to various parties of its remaining assets.
  • Legal counsel to the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico in relation to general banking, tax compliance and restructuring matters
  • Counsel to over 50 municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in the issuance of their general obligation bonds and notes, totaling over US$1.1 billion
  • Represented a group of urban/street artists in a high profile and novel copyright case against a major movie producer and Hollywood and international studios for appropriation of a mural painted by the artists in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Languages
  • Spanish
Education
  • J.D., University of Pennsylvania
  • LL.M., Real Property Development , University of Miami School of Law
  • B.A., University of Massachusetts
    magna cum laude

Awards

  • The Legal 500 Latin America
    Recommended, Latin America: International Firms City Focus: Miami (2021)
    The Legal 500 comments, "Of counsel Diego Figueroa-Rodriguez is experienced in infrastructure-related capital raisings with strong tax-driven components; he has a particularly fine record in Puerto Rico matters."
    Recommended, Latin America: International Firms City Focus: Miami (2019)

He was also nominated and became a finalist in the Daily Business Review’s list of "2012 Top Dealmakers of the Year." Diego was selected as a "20 on the Move" honoree by Boston Business Journal and received the "Attorney's Title Insurance Fund, Inc." award as well as the Urban Land Institute's "Urban Plan First Prize" award. He is an Inns of Court member and a recipient of the Council of Legal Education Opportunity Fellowship.

Bylines

  • "The Selection of the Federal District Court Judges in Puerto Rico: An Extension of Puerto Rican Politics," Diego R. Figueroa-Rodriguez (Sheldon Goldman), Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
  • "United States – Florida Chapter," The Art Collecting Legal Handbook, (Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited 2016)

Seminars

  • Speaker, Congreso de Lideres de Puerto Rico
  • Chair and Moderator, Issuer’s Counsel Hot Topics, National Association of Bond Lawyers, Bond Attorneys’ Workshop
  • Guest lecturer, "Intellectual Property Rights in the US as Applied to the Visual Arts particularly to Street Art," Faculty of Law and Political Science, Department of European Law of Pázmány Peter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary

Community Engagement

Diego is a member of the Alpha Chi Rho National Fraternity and a former volunteer attorney at Philadelphia's AIDS Law Project and Catholic Charities Immigration. Mr. Figueroa is the founder and member of Fundación Figueroa, Ortíz & Santiago, Inc., an organization that provides scholarships to students graduating from the Ana J. Candelas Academic High School.

Affiliations

Diego is the Vice-Chair of the Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee of the American Bar Association and is an active member of the Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee of the International Bar Association. As a museum trustee, art collector and philanthropist, Mr. Figueroa remains involved with art law and cultural heritage matters, including becoming part of the Art & Law Program held in collaboration with Fordham Law School and completing courses on The International Legal Framework for the Protection of Art and Cultural Property and The Ethics of Collectors and Collections at the University of Siena Facolta di Giurisprudenza in Italy. 

Memberships And Affiliations

Diego is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, the New York State and American Bar Associations, the Puerto Rican Bar Association, Inc., the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Florida, the International Bar Association, and the Urban Land Institute. He is also a member of the University of Pennsylvania Law School Alumni Association, the University of Miami School of Law Alumni Association, and a member and former director of the UMASS Alumni Association. Diego currently serves as a member of the governing boards of the Museo de Arte Puerto Rico, the Museum Trustee Association, the Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín and in various advisory committees, including one at the Lowe Art Museum of the University of Miami. He is a founder and was co-chair of the Young International Committee of the Museo del Barrio, NYC. He also served as a member of the steering committee of the Bond Attorneys’ Workshop of the National Association of Bond Lawyers where he chaired the Issuer’s Counsel Panels, and is the Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee. Diego is admitted to practice in Florida and New York. 

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