Reed Groethe is a retired partner with Foley & Lardner LLP who provided legal services to the public finance industry. He was a member of the Public Finance and the Finance & Financial Institutions Practices. He worked with bond issuers and other public finance industry participants and has served as bond counsel for the State of Wisconsin for over 25 years.

Reed has helped to develop and complete many innovative financing transactions and programs. Some recent examples include the following:

• The Bond Buyer’s 2004 Midwest Deal of the Year: the State of Wisconsin’s first annual appropriation obligations (issued to fund its pension and sick-leave liabilities)
• The State of Wisconsin’s first special-fund revenue obligations (issued to fund environmental remediation grants)
• A cash-flow management program for Wisconsin school districts
• A billion-dollar borrowing for the State of Louisiana’s “last resort” property insurer to pay claims resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

As counsel for the State of Wisconsin, Reed helped prepare legislation authorizing public financing of a major-league baseball stadium and, in particular, counseled on constitutional issues. The constitutionality of the enacted legislation was promptly challenged – and ultimately upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court includes this case as one of 25 on its list of “Famous Cases of the Supreme Court.”

He established and managed the law firm’s arbitrage rebate tax compliance service, which operates under the service name Arbitrage Rebate Company and has grown to become a national leader for that type of tax compliance service.

He joined Foley after a one-year clerkship with a federal appellate judge.