The NABL Member Spotlight initiative is a volunteer-based program. All featured members participate voluntarily and are selected to highlight their contributions and achievements within our community. Participation in the spotlight does not imply endorsement by NABL. If you would like to be featured, please contact us! Now, let’s meet Brian Garzione and learn more about his public finance journey:

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how your career in Public Finance started.

I started my legal career working on mergers & acquisitions, representing corporate and private equity clients. As part of that general corporate work, I also worked on certain securities matters. While not apples to apples, the corporate securities work helped lay the groundwork for my shift into public finance. In 2010, I started at Hawkins to support the firm’s securities law practice, among other things.

You are chairing The Institute this year, can you share more about your volunteering experience at NABL and how you got more involved with the Association’s programming? 

When I started at Hawkins, I worked closely with John McNally who was very involved with NABL and several key projects. He also became NABL President around this time. I recognized the value of that involvement and wanted to do the same. Working with NABL, I have been a frequent speaker, panelist, and moderator at conferences and acted as chair and vice-chair of the Securities Law and Disclosure Committee for over four years. During that time, I had a crucial role in steering the committee agenda and took an active role on several high-profile projects and meetings. NABL presents a lot of opportunities to volunteer, and members should get involved if interested.

What are some of the more interesting elements of a public finance practice?

Looking at this from the perspective of a securities law practitioner, public finance is a very interesting area of practice. While certain key federal securities laws do apply to public finance transactions, so much of the regulation in the broader securities market is inapplicable. Tracking regulatory developments in the corporate or registered securities market and adopting some of those doctrines by analogy is pretty unique. Most of the time legal practice is analyzing the direct application of regulation. The federal securities law aspects of public finance seem to allow for more discretion and nuanced analysis than other practice areas.

Do you have any advice for new NABL members and early practitioners?

As I mentioned above, there are many opportunities with NABL for new members and early practitioners to volunteer for a committee or project. The more you are involved with NABL, the more you will get out of membership. You can learn a lot about the public finance practice through a NABL project or committee and interactions with other members.

What is a fun fact that people might not know about you?

We have gotten very into skiing in recent years as we teach our three kids the sport. It has been a great family activity. I am also a soccer and basketball coach for my kids’ teams where I can be heard belting out defensive-minded tactics. I also like books on shipwrecks.