John M. Palmer

Palmer built a national reputation as a public school finance expert, helping districts around the state get the most out of taxpayer dollars.

He has been lead counsel on more than $1 billion of bonds for public school facilities projects across the state, including Sacramento City Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District. He has advised state education officials on school-finance related legal issues and speaks regularly at school finance conferences.

"I was looking for a public interest job at a law firm," he said, describing how he arrived at his niche practice. As a second-year student at Northwestern University School of Law, he interviewed with a public finance lawyer whose work caught his imagination. "I do feel positive about the future of public education in California," he said. "I get to work with people who administrate and plan the school system, and they turn out to be smart, caring people focused on delivering the best product they can."

One of Palmer's close connections is with Oakland Unified, which underwent a serious budget crisis and bankruptcy in the early 2000s. "There was a fair amount of distress, but the schools have come out of it, thanks to the tireless efforts of school leadership," he said. To help all the state's schools, he drafted SB 222, a law granting holders of school general obligation bonds the statutory right to taxes levied to pay them. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure last July.

"Rating agencies did not want to rate solely on the property tax base, because of uncertainty over what would happen to the money in case of a school bankruptcy," Palmer said, explaining SB 222's utility. "The statute protects bondholders in the event of a bankruptcy."

That has allowed Fitch Ratings Inc. and others to evaluate bond issues solely on the tax base, leading to higher ratings that save taxpayers money, he said. School districts in San Diego and Berkeley have already issued bonds newly rated AAA based on SB 222, he said.

Palmer's wife is pregnant with twins. "I'm working for their educational future," he said.

- John Roemer