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 Charity Karanja and learn more about her practice:

Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

I am originally from Kenya, born and raised in the slopes of Mount Kenya, an extinct volcano and the second highest peak in Africa located in the Central Highlands of Kenya. Despite the daily “high-altitude training” that inexplicably accompanies life in the Highlands, I am not a runner! But I suppose all that endurance training came in handy in braving the cold winters in Ithaca, New York while pursuing my undergraduate degree at Cornell University. 

My husband, Jonathan, and I are both proud graduates of the University of Mississippi School of Law (Hotty Toddy!). We have been married for three years, and have a baby boy, Jonathan “Jay” Jr., who is quickly approaching the “wonderful” twos, and the sweetest four year-old puppy named “Spike.”

When we are not otherwise busy trying to keep up with the adventures of the baby and the puppy, we enjoy cooking, gardening, fishing, traveling, and catching up on sleep.

What first interested you in Public Finance? 

My first experience with development finance was after I graduated from high school and interned with Equity Group Holdings Limited (formerly Equity Bank Group), a financial services company in East and Central Africa. In college, I pursued a degree in Applied Economics and Management with concentrations in Finance and Accounting fully intending to pursue a career as an underwriter, but later switched gears and went to law school. I decided to focus my law practice in public finance after a brilliant pitch from my mentor, Tray Hairston, during a lunch meeting where he gave me my offer to join Butler Snow as a full-time associate. During that meeting, Tray gave me a copy of NABL’s Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law, in addition to other public finance-related reference materials, and that was my first introduction to NABL.

How has your participation and membership in NABL provided value to you and your practice?

I joined NABL in 2021 during my first year of practice and have since tried to find ways to get involved, including joining the Tax Law Committee, General Law and Practice Committee, Diversity Committee, and the Young Lawyers Network.

So far, I have been fortunate to work with other NABL members on several projects. In 2022, I worked on a project by the General Law and Practice Committee as a reviewer for the General Law Section of the Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law, and I am currently helping with the Committee’s thought leadership piece on Carson v. Makin and its impact on tax-exempt bond financing. I am also a Mentee in this year’s NABL Mentorship Program by the Diversity Committee, and my Mentor, Jeffery Qualkinbush, is an absolute rockstar.

Through my participation in NABL, I have gained a greater perspective and a deeper understanding of public finance. I attended my first Essentials Conference in 2022 in Denver, and in addition to connecting with other bond lawyers, I remember wondering how the presenters got to be so wise and knowledgeable. Now, about three years later, I have had the privilege of being invited to give presentations at various conferences throughout the country as well as on behalf of clients discussing the same concepts that I learned through NABL and work experience.

What are some of the more fascinating things in your public finance practice that you have worked on or experienced in the past four years since you’ve been practicing law?

Despite being relatively new to the practice, I have been extremely fortunate to work on many public finance and economic development matters, serving on multiple roles including tax counsel, underwriter’s counsel, bond counsel, issuer’s counsel, and developer’s counsel.

If I were to single out some of the more interesting projects, I would highlight some of my tax work, including an IRS audit of public school district bonds; incentive counsel work, including the development of the first Topgolf and the first Buc-ee’s in the state of Mississippi; and disclosure counsel work, including helping a client with an SEC investigation. I am also very proud of my participation in the 2024 CDFA Caren S. Franzini Fellowship, and particularly the paper that my fellow Franzini Fellows and I co-authored: Financing Tools and Incentives for Developers in Middle Missing Housing.

What is the best piece of advice you have received?

I have received a lot of great advice in my life, but my favorite piece of advice is actually a quote from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Dumbledore tells Harry: “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.” In retrospect, those words may have something to do with why I became a lawyer!

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

I love fruit! Whenever I travel, I make sure to find a local or international market and browse through the fruit section, buying every exotic fruit I can find. Thus far, I have tried hundreds of different types (and varieties) of fruit from all over the world.