Alexandra (Sandy) MacLennan focuses on US public finance and serves as bond, underwriters’ and disclosure counsel. She has been named in The Best Lawyers in America each year since 2006 and is a Best Lawyers 2016 Lawyer of the Year for Public Finance Law – Tampa. She has been recognized in Chambers USA for banking and finance since 2009.
Sandy has 30 years of experience as bond, disclosure and underwriters’ counsel in a variety of transactions including, in particular, financings for traditional municipal projects, healthcare, higher education and airport projects. She serves as bond counsel to several public hospital districts and nonprofit hospital organizations in Florida and public housing authorities. She also serves as underwriters’ counsel for various national and regional underwriting firms.
In July 2011, Sandy was invited by the Securities and Exchange Commission to participate in the SEC’s third and final field hearing in Birmingham, Alabama. The hearings were held as an information gathering process in advance of the issuance of the SEC's report on the state of the municipal market which included proposed legislative and/or regulatory proposals regarding primary and continuing disclosure.
In 2017, Sandy was elected president of the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL). Sandy is a member of The Florida Bar, former chair of the City, County and Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar and a frequent speaker and panelist, locally and nationally, on municipal finance and disclosure topics.
Sandy was an editor of NABL's Federal Securities Laws of Municipal Bonds Deskbook, Fifth Edition, published by LexisNexis. She is also the principal author and editor of Squire Patton Boggs client alerts regarding municipal securities law matters. She was the principal author in February 2011 of Squire Patton Boggs comments to the proposed regulations of the SEC regarding municipal advisors. She chairs the practice’s national Disclosure Group, an internal group of public finance, tax and corporate securities lawyers whose purpose is to assist clients in compliance with the requirements of federal and state securities laws as applied to municipal securities by providing (1) education and training regarding the applicability of the federal securities laws to municipal securities and (2) expertise with respect to specific disclosure issues that may arise in connection with both primary and continuing disclosure matters.
In 2007, Sandy was one of the first Florida women elected a Fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel. Also in 2007 she was recognized by the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit’s Pro Bono Program, H.A.V.E. A HEART and the Bay Area Volunteer Lawyers Program for her exceptional pro bono service to the Tampa community.
In 2006, she was awarded the Paul S. Buchman Public Service Award for outstanding contribution in the area of legal public service at the annual meeting of the City, County and Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar. The award is named after Paul S. Buchman, a longtime city attorney for Plant City, Florida, who is noted throughout Florida and nationally for his contributions to municipal law and his service to the community.
