Paul K. Casey

Paul K. Casey is the Practice Leader of the firm's Housing Group. Mr. Casey concentrates on real estate finance and public finance transactions, with an emphasis on affordable housing, public housing law, and federal housing programs.

A major portion of Mr. Casey's practice includes the representation of housing authorities in the financing and development of affordable multifamily and single-family housing, including HOPE VI and mixed-finance developments and acquisition rehabilitation financing. Since 1995, he has concentrated much of his practice in the area of mixed-finance public housing development and has been actively involved in hundreds of such transactions across the country. 

Mr. Casey's experience includes leading the legal team that represented the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in the closing of the one of the largest public-private partnership tax credit bond deals in U.S. history. The transaction, funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides approximately $400 million in initial public and private funding for the modernization of more than 20,000 public housing units and an additional $65 million to $75 million each year in federal subsidies for ongoing operations. In addition, Mr. Casey led the legal team that represented the Puerto Rico Public Housing Administration in closing the largest Low Income Housing Tax Credit project ever done in the history of the tax credit program: $235 million in tax credit equity, combined with $485 million in tax-exempt bonds, to finance the modernization of 4,100 housing units.

Mr. Casey served as a member of the HOPE VI Work Group, established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to advise HUD on the development of revised Total Development Cost Guidelines and the Cost Control and Safe Harbor Standards for Rental Mixed-Finance Development. He was also a member of the advisory team that assisted in the preparation of HUD's Mixed-Finance Guidebook.

Mr. Casey was appointed Assistant Attorney General of Maryland and served from 1983 to 1987, representing the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Pro Bono Experience

Mr. Casey is an active participant in Ballard Spahr's pro bono program. In the past several years, two of the pro bono teams he helped to organize won Ballard's annual outstanding pro bono team award. One team represented the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore in the conversion of their 100-year-old motherhouse and orphanage into a mixed-use housing facility, including a convent, an affordable rental facility, and homes for families with foster children. The other team project involved more than 20 professionals providing emergency legal services to the Housing Authority of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Professional Activities

American Bar Association
Past Group Chair, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, Affordable Housing Committee (1996-2000); past member, Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, Governing Committee (1998-2005); past Chair, Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law (2003-2004)

Maryland Code Revision Housing Laws Subcommittee, past member (2002-2005)

State of Maryland
Past member, Housing Policy Commission; past Assistant Attorney General (1983-1987)

Recognition & Accomplishments

The Best Lawyers in America, real estate law, 2013

Recipient, the American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law's Michael Scher Award for 2013, recognizing attorneys who have demonstrated leadership in the affordable housing and community development field, played a substantial role in exemplary affordable housing/community development initiatives, and made a significant positive contribution to this field

Named a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer, April 1, 2011, for leading the Ballard Spahr team that represented the New York City Housing Authority in one of the largest public-private partnership tax credit bond deals in the nation's history

The Legal 500 US, real estate and construction – real estate, 2011

Publications

Contributing author to ABA's Legal Guide to Affordable Housing Development, first edition published in 2005 and second edition published in 2011, and frequent speaker and writer on affordable housing topics, including HOPE VI and mixed-finance public housing development

Speaking Engagements

"Use of Nontraditional Funding Structures for Development by Public Housing Authorities," American Bar Association's 19th Annual Affordable Housing and Community Development Law Conference, Washington, D.C., May 26, 2010

"Maximizing Leverage: Leveraging HUD's Capital Fund Financing Program with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and Energy Performance Contracts," U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Conference, June 2008

"Ethics in Affordable Housing Transactions," American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing Regional Conference, New Orleans, February 2008

"Mixed-Finance Development Options: The Challenge of Maximizing Resources Including the Use of Capital Advance Borrowings," National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies, New Orleans, November 2006

"The Future of Public and Assisted Housing After Katrina," American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing National Conference, Washington, D.C., May 2006

"Mixed-Finance Development Options: The Challenge of Maximizing Resources Including the Use of Capital Advance Borrowings," Chase-Coats/Rose Conference on Development Opportunities in the Gulf Coast/New Orleans, March 2006

"Housing Authorities as Self-Developers," Fall Conference of Housing Development Law Institute, Chicago, October 2005

"Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in Leveraging for Assisted Housing," HUD/ABA Forum on Affordable Housing Joint Training Seminar, Washington, D.C., May 2005

Board Memberships

Columbia Downtown Housing Corporation, President, since January 2013

Maryland Affordable Housing Trust, since 1992

Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra, since 1994

Howard County Housing and Community Development Board, past member (2007-2009)

Resurrection Parish Corporate Board, Ellicott City, Maryland, since 2003

The Lawyer's Clearinghouse, Inc., a Maryland nonprofit corporation, past Director (1990-1995)

University of Virginia School of Law (J.D. 1977)
Dillard Legal Writing Fellow

University of Virginia (M.A. 1973)

St. Anselm College (B.A. 1970, summa cum laude)

District of Columbia

Maryland