• Member Spotlight

Ann D. Fillingham, NABL President, Dykema Gossett PLLC Lansing, MI

The Blue Book from my first “Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law” conference is dated 1991!

Ann D. Fillingham, NABL President 2021-2022, Dykema Gossett PLLC Lansing, MI

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a life-long resident of Michigan. My husband Brian and I are happily married, with two delightful grown children. When I am not in the office, my favorite place to be is in northern Michigan; out on Lake Michigan on my paddleboard if the water is very calm (I am exceptionally uncoordinated) or just sitting on our deck sipping a beverage from the cottage’s reconditioned 1960’s Coke machine (which happily also dispenses long necks).

How and when were you first introduced to NABL?

The Blue Book from my first “Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law” conference is dated 1991!

What is your favorite NABL experience?

Every time I attend a NABL event, I am impressed all over again with the caliber of our membership. We are all committed to making each other smarter and better lawyers in an old-school way I love a lot.

What are your overall goals for NABL during your presidency?

NABL’s position at the intersection of federal, state and local finance and policy concerns allows us to bring valuable insight to discussions related to public finance. I hope we can bring that insight to the current dialogue in Washington D.C. in a meaningful way. As we roll into 2022, I also hope to encourage membership involvement, both in-person and virtually, in a variety of educational and professional development activities.

What are the biggest challenges our members face right now in the public finance industry?

When the pandemic first started, our markets were a little upside down and we were all trying to figure out, on the fly, how to work remotely. Luckily those issues are more or less behind us. Our current challenges have become somewhat more subtle. They include figuring out, as we all work through different hybrid office realities, how to effectively collaborate with our clients and colleagues to brainstorm about the exciting opportunities that are presenting themselves to adapt the public finance toolkit and assist our clients in addressing their needs, including those in the infrastructure and energy evolution areas.