If you would like to be featured, please contact us! Now, let’s meet Jon Jurich and learn more about his public finance journey:

1. What led you to pursue a career in public finance, and how has your involvement with NABL shaped your professional journey?

While I knew I was probably going to be a transactional attorney when I started my career, the Great Recession made me particularly sensitive to finding a practice group where I could start to immediately demonstrate value. My first firm announced [NABL President-Elect] Deanna Gregory’s partnership promotion the week I started, which meant the firm’s public finance group in that office was about to have zero associates (and I took that as the perfect opportunity to make myself too valuable to downsize). So I started making a nuisance of myself to the partners in that group until they gave me work and let me learn what a public finance practice looks like: the opportunity to do really meaningful work, with really incredible clients, across the table from and in collaboration with other (mostly) lovely people who are all aiming to make our communities better.  

That group of attorneys also has a longstanding commitment to being involved in NABL, so it wasn’t really a “choice” – I was expected to go to what is now Essentials, then to The Workshop and, when I finally knew enough, to The Institute. Along the way, I was volun-told to attend committee meetings, and to find or make opportunities to contribute to the organization. Where that involvement has really shaped my professional journey, however, is in the connections I have built across the country of folks who do this work, which comes with all sorts of perks – sounding boards when I am facing a “new” fact pattern and trying to make it fit, social outings with folks across the country, and a sense of community when I’m attending conferences like The Workshop! Oh, and the latest perk – at least (and hopefully only) one giant picture of myself inside the Hilton Chicago. 

2. You are chairing The Workshop 2026, what’s something you are looking forward to for this year’s conference? 

AIs “all of it” a fair answer? The Steering Committee – the folks who chair the panels and lead on producing the incredible content we are all going to experience – is an incredible group of people, and I cannot wait to watch them share all of their materials.  

If I absolutely had to pick just one thing: this year’s General Session should really set the tone for the entire meeting, so I am excited to get things kicked off and build from there! 

3. What is a project or deal you’ve worked on that stands out in your career, and what made it especially meaningful or impactful?  

I have had the opportunity to work on bond financings for my high school alma mater from on several occasions (Go Bullpups). On the first of those deals, I worked alongside the school president, who had been the principal during my enrollment and who I had separately known as “my friend Tom’s dad” since the sixth grade. Being in the room at a preclosing with folks who had played such a huge role in my younger life, and whose mentorship I have hopefully put to good use in getting to this point in my career, all while helping the school to improve its facilities for current and future students was a real “full circle” moment of being in community and serving others (or as the school itself would frame it, AMDG). 

4. The theme of this year’s conference is “Building Bonds for Our Future.” What does this theme mean to you? 

First – a huge amount of credit is due to NABL staff for their creativity in capturing a milestone moment; we, as members, are so lucky and benefit so much from their work.  

As for what it means to me – I hope folks do the obvious part of renewing old friendships and strengthening those relationships (or taking a working relationship and starting to build it towards friendship). I hope folks take the next step and meet some new people and start making those connections. I hope folks build up their own substantive knowledge – even the parts where a panelist says something and causes an “Oh, $@#@#” moment when they say “I would never in a million years do [that thing we just did on the deal that closed that last week and we never even hesitated about].” Finally, I hope everyone who attends is reminded of the amazing people we get to work with, and of the ways we are making the industry – for our clients, for the investors who buy the debt, and for ourselves as legal professionals (not that lawyers have ever done anything wrong or taken an unhealthy or unbalanced approach to anything ever, nope) – better for the long term.

5. What are your most recent favorite podcasts, books, and/or TV shows? 

I spent a good portion of June and July ripping through Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which I absolutely loved – basically all my not-so-secret nerdiness indulged with a good side of snark? What’s not to love? (Sadly, though, I think I got outvoted in having the conference’s signature cocktail be a Dirty Shirley … which probably speaks, again, to the good judgment of the incredible NABL staff!)  

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!