Overview

Timothy Carson advises clients in the area of public sector law, especially public finance. During his 35-year professional career, he has represented more than 100 Pennsylvania local government units and state agencies as Bond Counsel and Special Counsel for public finance matters, as well as many financial institutions that provide funding and capital markets access to public entities for infrastructure projects.

Tim has served as Bond Counsel, Underwriters’ Counsel, and Special Counsel in the financing of a wide variety of public projects, including schools, airports, water and sewer systems, highway toll road and transit facilities, open space acquisition and preservation, health care institutions, commercial and industrial development, urban redevelopment, ports, housing, student loans, and solid waste disposal/resource recovery facilities. He has had unique experience in Pennsylvania transportation matters, both as a lawyer and as a public sector board member. In many of these engagements, he has played a leading role in formulating and advancing innovative funding strategies.

Tim is a frequent speaker and panelist at national seminars, conferences, and symposia on the subjects of public finance and the development and regeneration of the nation’s infrastructure. He is a nationally and internationally recognized commentator on the use of public-private and public-public partnerships for public infrastructure financing and has been prominently featured in such periodicals as Business Week, Time, and numerous other publications, as well as on a variety of radio/television programs. Tim is an elected Fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel (created “to recognize experience and excellence in the field of bond law”). At the time of his induction, he was only the third Pennsylvania lawyer to be so recognized, and he is currently the senior member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the ACBC.

Representative Experience

  • Public and Project Finance/Transportation Policy: Tim has performed pioneering work in the use of innovative transportation financing structures and programs, often involving unique public-private partnerships (P3’s). He has been involved in the creation of various transportation development and business improvement districts, tax increment and tax assessment financings, and design-build and more extensive P3 procurements and financings for highway/bridge projects, service plaza construction, and public transit facilities. He has played leadership roles in the drafting and formulation of major transportation funding and P3 enabling legislation in Pennsylvania.
  • Public Policy Development/Governmental Relations: In his law practice, Tim has had extensive interaction for over 30 years with Pennsylvania state and federal elected officials. He has also served in leadership capacities for a variety of executive and legislative agencies, commissions and advisory committees (often by appointment of Pennsylvania Governors), as well as various professional, charitable, and political organizations.
  • Statutory Drafting/Formulation: Tim was the co-draftsman of the Pennsylvania Transportation Partnership Act (Act No. 47 of 1985). He played an instrumental role in the formulation of Pennsylvania’s most recent comprehensive transportation funding legislation (Act 44 of 2007 and Act 89 of 2013), and he was the draftsman of the original legislation that became Act 88 of 2012 (the Pennsylvania P3 enabling statute).

Professional & Community Activities

  • Former President, Pennsylvania Bar Association, 2002-03. (The PBA is comprised of more than 29,000 lawyers/members)
  • Former Chairman of the Board and Executive Committee, and Commissioner, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (by appointment of Governor Tom Ridge). (The DVRPC administers a regional transportation improvement program of over 600 projects aggregating more than $6 billion.)
  • Former PA Counsel, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.
  • Former Vice Chairman and Commissioner, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (by appointment of Governors Ridge and Rendell).
  • Transition Teams, Governor-Elect Tom Ridge and Governor-Elect Governor Ed Rendell.
  • Appointments by Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: Lawyers Fund for Client Security, Task Force on Gender Bias in the Justice System.
  • Former Chairman, Republican State Finance Committee of Pennsylvania.
  • Delegate, Republican National Conventions, 1988, 1992, 2000
  • Former President, Philadelphia Bar Foundation (The charitable arm of the Philadelphia Bar Association)
  • Former Member, Board of Governors, Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI is the educational arm of the PBA)
  • Former Board Member, Pennsylvania Bar Trust & Insurance Fund
  • Founding Member, Pennsylvania Association of Bond Lawyers
  • Member, National Association of Bond Lawyers
  • Member, Government Finance Officers’ Association
  • Member, American, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Bar Associations
  • Member, Eno Center for Transportation
  • Member, Pennsylvania Highway Information Association
  • Member, Pennsylvania Transportation Association
  • Member, Keystone Transportation Funding Coalition
  • Former Executive Committee Member and Legal Counsel, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation of Southeast Pennsylvania
  • Alumni Class President, University of Pennsylvania

Speeches & Presentations

  • “Pennsylvania and the ‘Other’ P3: Public Public Partnerships,” The Bond Buyer, 9th Annual Transportation Finance/P3 Conference.
  • “The Future of Transportation Funding in Pennsylvania – Act 44,” American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE), National Conference.
  • “The Emergence of Highly Leveraged Public Toll Facilities,” National Federation of Municipal Analysts, Advanced Seminar on Transportation Debt.
  • “Pennsylvania and the Public Monetization Option,” International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, Transportation Finance Summit.
  • “High-Leveraged Public Deals,” The Bond Buyer, 8th Annual Transportation Finance/P3 Conference.
  • Tim has published articles in the Villanova Law Review and St. John’s Law Review. He is the author of a white paper entitled “The Pennsylvania Turnpike: A Golden Goose in the Brave New P3 World”.

Professional Recognition

  • Fellow, American College of Bond Counsel (inducted 1996, third Pennsylvania lawyer to be so honored; current senior member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the ACBC)
  • Ambassador for Justice Award, Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, 2003
  • March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation of Southeast Pennsylvania,1990
  • Multiple awards and other recognition from national, state, and local bar associations for service to the legal profession and the justice system.

Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

Representative Experience

  • Public and Project Finance/Transportation Policy: Tim has performed pioneering work in the use of innovative transportation financing structures and programs, often involving unique public-private partnerships (P3’s). He has been involved in the creation of various transportation development and business improvement districts, tax increment and tax assessment financings, and design-build and more extensive P3 procurements and financings for highway/bridge projects, service plaza construction, and public transit facilities. He has played leadership roles in the drafting and formulation of major transportation funding and P3 enabling legislation in Pennsylvania.
  • Public Policy Development/Governmental Relations: In his law practice, Tim has had extensive interaction for over 30 years with Pennsylvania state and federal elected officials. He has also served in leadership capacities for a variety of executive and legislative agencies, commissions and advisory committees (often by appointment of Pennsylvania Governors), as well as various professional, charitable, and political organizations.
  • Statutory Drafting/Formulation: Tim was the co-draftsman of the Pennsylvania Transportation Partnership Act (Act No. 47 of 1985). He played an instrumental role in the formulation of Pennsylvania’s most recent comprehensive transportation funding legislation (Act 44 of 2007 and Act 89 of 2013), and he was the draftsman of the original legislation that became Act 88 of 2012 (the Pennsylvania P3 enabling statute).

Insights