Kenneth Lind, whose 45-year career has seen him working on some of this country’s largest projects and developments, has both the kind of storied reputation and local impact that any public servant could only dream of.
But outside of his many headline achievements, whether that be the development of Hudson Yards, the extension of the 7 Train to Manhattan’s West Side, his continued work with the Metropolitan Transit Authority on congestion pricing or working on the $40 billion financial restructuring of Puerto Rico, he is known to his intimates as a consummate team player.
“Ken is someone I really try to model myself after,” said Virginia Wong, partner and practice group leader, project and public finance at Nixon Peabody. “He was the practice group leader before I became the practice group leader and his example is one that’s just so present to me every day. It’s what would Ken do, not what would Jesus do.”
Lind began his career as an attorney in the New York City Law Department, where he worked from 1978 to 1980 after graduating from New York Law School with his J.D. Before this, Lind graduated from Colgate University in 1974 with a B.A. in History. Some of his early work included the decommissioning of the USS Intrepid, a World War II era warship, and its conversion into a museum.
And while he took a little time out of New York to establish Brown & Wood’s Los Angeles office, their first office in California, where he eventually became partner and spent 15 years with the firm, he has remained a public finance lawyer throughout the almost half century in the industry.
During his time in Los Angeles, one of his projects of note was a tax-exempt financing that outfitted much of the City of Los Angeles with public recycling bins. But it’s his work with the MTA, the nation’s largest transportation agency, that has secured his status as one of the country’s top public finance lawyers.
“He is single handedly responsible for the development of most of the west side of Manhattan,” Wong said.
Lind was part of the team at MTA that secured full funding grant agreements from the federal government for the East Side Access Project, which gave the Long Island Railroad access into Grand Central Terminal. He was also involved in MTA’s $14 billion debt restructuring in 2002, where he helped author MTA’s financing agreements and legislation, which are still used by the MTA and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.
That project was made up of 18 distinct transactions completed over eight months, which to this day is one of the largest total deals in the history of American municipal finance, Wong said. While at MTA Lind also helped develop and pioneer one of the most comprehensive disclosure filings in the country, which continues to set the tone for how large issuers present their information. Lind also said while at MTA he became accustomed to negotiating on behalf of the MTA at the state legislature.
His work on Manhattan’s West Side is particularly noteworthy, whether that’s the extension of the 7 train to Eleventh Avenue, the $1.5 billion renovation of the Javits Center, helping to secure the TIFIA loans for the conversion of Farley Post Office Building into Moynihan Train Hall, or working with a number of New York and New York City issuers to develop Hudson Yards, his large impact has cast a wide shadow.
“Working with Ken and learning from him has shown me why he is regarded as one of the best transportation and infrastructure lawyers in the country: he understands his clients’ needs, solves complex problems with creative and thoughtful solutions, and serves as an invaluable resource to clients and colleagues alike,” said Adam Gordon, partner at Nixon Peabody. “But what truly sets him apart is that he is one of the kindest and most compassionate people in the industry. For these reasons and many others, Ken has been and continues to be a role model for both young and experienced attorneys. I am grateful for his leadership and his mentorship.”
He joined Nixon Peabody in 2008, where he continued his strong relationship with the MTA as bond counsel, in addition to Nixon’s regular flow of financings for infrastructure, transportation, water and wastewater projects. He became leader of the Project Finance and Public Finance Practice in 2018.
Lind said he’s particularly proud of his work with major issuers, and continues as senior counsel at Nixon Peabody to aid in internal training and help pass on that institutional knowledge he’s gained over his long career.