Robert Doty, the veteran lawyer, underwriter, financial and municipal advisor, law professor, special consultant, expert witness and author of numerous publications, who played an early and instrumental role in developing disclosure rules for the municipal market, has passed away. He was 81.
Doty’s passing in April came after a years-long battle with cancer. The public finance industry has lost a titan whose influence can hardly be overstated, according to other longtime lawyers and advisors. Everyone knew him and everyone learned from him.
“Robert’s career covered just about every aspect of public finance. He was a bond lawyer, underwriter, financial advisor, author of treatises and articles, and supporter of important projects by the Government Finance Officers Association to raise the quality of bond disclosure,” said Dean Pope, special counsel for Hunton Andrews Kurth. “I worked with him on several projects, and he and I were opposing expert witnesses in a number of lawsuits involving failed bond issues. He was always a gentleman. A prodigious author, he was utterly devoted to helping issuers to do right by the purchasers of their bonds and to protect themselves in the process. His interest in promoting good disclosure never lagged.”
“Robert was a great thought leader all throughout his life,” said Susan Gaffney, executive director of the National Association of Municipal Advisors. “Working at GFOA in the 70s and early 80s, a banker before that in the Rocky Mountains, and of course his long standing legal, expert witness, and advisory work gave him a breadth and perspective that always stood out and was greatly respected throughout the industry.”
Doty began his career as an underwriter in Denver and a law professor at Creighton University, when he became involved with what was then the Municipal Finance Officers Association, which soon changed to the Government Finance Officers Association. When the Securities Acts Amendments of 1975 codified that Rule 10b5 applied to municipal securities issuers, as well established the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, he began work on disclosure best practices for both issuers and counsel.
“He was involved in the disclosure guide, what’s now known as the Government Finance Officers Association, Disclosure Guidelines for State and Local Government Securities, really from the get go,” said Paul Maco, of counsel at Bracewell and the SEC’s first director of the Office of Municipal Securities.
The same goes for Disclosure Roles of Counsel in State and Local Government Securities Offerings, where he served as coordinator and reporter for the first edition in 1987, which was jointly sponsored by the National Association of Bond Lawyers and the American Bar Association.
“He was a prolific author of voluminous articles in law reviews and public finance journals, as well as self-published treatises and a very passionate advocate of his views on municipal disclosure and the responsibilities of various parties for disclosure in municipal securities transactions,” Maco said. “He’s one of the original advocates for disclosure in municipal securities transactions.”
When John McNally, a former partner at Hawkins Delafield & Wood and former president of NABL moved to Denver, he met Doty and was intrigued by the work he was doing.
“He was telling me about this project that he had started, where the lawyers who practiced in the public finance industry would get together and compare notes and try to have a comprehensive discussion of the disclosure roles of counsel,” McNally said.”It was a project that I had a part in all during my career and it was a very rewarding thing,” McNally added. “I have to thank Bob for getting me started on that track.”
He stayed active for decades with the GFOA, serving as general counsel as well as on the Disclosure Task Force and continued to mentor those around him.
“Robert was an incredible resource for me personally,” said Emily Brock, director of the federal liaison center at the GFOA. “He was always willing to share not only his opinions but the background on so many important matters, especially on the regulatory front. This helped so many of us in the industry over the past 50 years.”
“When I started in the “business,” my focus was on municipal disclosure, and Robert was a legend and leader. I admired him and learned so much from him. Such an articulate man and great thinker,” said Helen Atkenson, partner at Hogan Lovells in Denver.
“Robert was a respected, outspoken, and brilliant member of the municipal community,” said Michael Decker, senior vice president for research and public policy at the Bond Dealers of America.
“He was a passionate advocate for his clients and for sound and robust regulatory schemes for both broker-dealers and municipal advisors. Over decades in the market, Robert earned the respect and admiration of all he worked with, including his competitors. We miss his voice.”
Doty participated in billions of dollars of municipal securities and corporate finance transactions, representing more than 150 governmental entities in approximately two dozen states.
He served as Co-Chair of the Section of Economic Development/Finance & Securities of the International Municipal Lawyers Association, and received the organization’s Most Outstanding Associate Member Award. He also was a member of the Board of Governors and Executive Committee, member of the Industry Practices Committee, as well as chair of a disclosure committee of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. He received NFMA’s Municipal Industry Contribution Award.
“The NFMA is saddened to learn of the passing of Robert Doty,” the organization said. “Robert served the NFMA on the Board of Governors from 1989 – 1992 and was actively involved for decades in the effort to improve municipal market disclosure.”
“He continued over the years to contribute to disclosure efforts through his work on other NFMA white papers, including White Papers on Charter Schools and Expert Work Products. He devoted considerable time and his considerable skill to the betterment of municipal disclosure, and was an author and scholar with an emphasis on U.S. history.”
“We were colleagues first and then he worked for me and then we were colleagues again,” said Lori Raineri, chief executive officer of the Government Financial Services Joint Powers Authority. “He was a man of incredible integrity. His research and analysis were so thorough, I don’t think there was anybody better when it came to legal research. He served the industry in so many different ways. He always stayed in public finance and he always was a service to America.”
Doty received his law degree from Harvard Law School and was a member of the California, New York, District of Columbia, Ohio and Texas bars. He served on a U.S. delegation to China on municipal finance.
“I remember his passion for our market and support of appropriate and adequate disclosures,” said Anne Ross, founding member and principal consultant at Muni Credit and Compliance Advisors. “Who can forget his visual guide to municipal bonds in 2012 where he provided a comprehensive overview of our market and how to evaluate credit, written for institutions and individual investors, alike. I was fortunate to have heard him speak numerous times at NFMA and elsewhere; he freely gave his point of view when asked. A well regarded prolific and accomplished speaker, advisor, and author. A loss for our industry.”
In recent years, Doty never stopped. He continued his work through his own organization, as president and proprietor of his own consulting firm AGFS, continued authoring articles and books, which included The Bloomberg Visual Guide to Municipal Bonds.
Doty has also testified extensively as an expert witness in federal courts across the country, including in states such as Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa, and state courts such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia.
“Robert Doty was in the vanguard of municipal industry professionals that advocated for better primary and secondary market disclosure, and was an active member of the NFMA, said Gil Southwell, vice president and senior municipal analyst at Wells Capital Management, who worked on NFMA projects with Doty.
His friends, family and former colleagues remember him as an intense and passionate man bent on bringing education and awareness to everyone in the municipal securities market.
“I think he saw his task as leading an educational effort to make sure that issuing entities were aware of their potential liabilities when they were offering securities,” McNally said. “And by the same token, sort of analyzing the roles of other others involved, including the lawyers, including the bankers, including financial advisors, all of whom have a role in terms of bringing a municipal offering to the market.”
“He was a zealous advocate,” Maco said. “All those words. Passionate, zealous, intense. That’s Robert.”