JULIE ARVO MACKENZIE - OF COUNSEL
602.271.9090 MAIN
602.222.4971 DIRECT
602.222.4999 FAX
3636 North Central Avenue
Suite 700
Phoenix, Arizona 85012
Practice
Public Finance
Business Formation and Transactions
Real Estate
Education
University of Michigan Law School, Juris Doctor, cum laude, 1987
University of Michigan, Bachelor of Arts, 1983
Admissions
U.S. District Court for District of Arizona
Assisted By
PDF Bio
Julie Arvo MacKenzie has more than 25 years’ business transactions experience. Before joining Engelman Berger, Julie formed her own law firm and also practiced at large national law firms, where she concentrated primarily in public finance, including bond financing transactions for numerous housing, hospital, education, and economic development projects. Julie then continued her career as in-house counsel for a health care conduit bond issuing authority, where she focused on her passion for providing client-friendly service.
Julie is a respected advisor and counsel to nonprofit organizations and political subdivisions, skillfully assisting clients navigate the often perplexing steps involved in bond transactions. Julie understands her clients have a business to run and that debt financing is only one of the challenges they face. She has extensive knowledge of all aspects of tax-exempt bond issuance, including disclosure, compliance, corporate governance, equipment leasing, governmental authority, and debt restructuring. In her 30-year legal career, Julie has represented virtually every type of financing participant (borrowers, banks, issuers, lenders, developers, underwriters and trustees).
Julie’s practice is relatively broad, providing counsel to corporate management and boards of directors on legal matters and business issues involving project financing for health facilities, schools, universities, governmental entities, senior living, and multifamily housing. Julie advises on a variety of complex business transactions such as tax-exempt bond issuance, bank loans, lease-purchase structures, debt refinancing, and bond defaults. Her clients have ranged in size and scope from large national health care systems and leading higher education institutions, to local health and social service providers, cultural organizations, and municipalities.
Focus
Her collegial and collaborative approach increases project financing accessibility for her clients and helps them identify opportunities in order to develop and grow.
Clients
Corporations
Governmental Entities
Banks
Trustees
Developers
Nonprofit Organizations
Issuers
Lenders and Borrowers
Industries
Public Finance
Business
Nonprofit Corporations
Finance and Development
Real Estate
Memberships and Affiliations
HonorHealth – Board of Directors, 2013 – Present
Desert Mission – Board of Directors, 2006 – Present; Chair, 2013 – 2016
Arizona Women Lawyers Association – Maricopa Steering Committee, 1998 – 2012; 2015 – 2016
National Association of Bond Lawyers, 1987 – Present
Recognition
AV-Rated by Martindale Hubbell Peer-Review Ratings®
Career Highlights
Represented an Arizona community development corporation in its purchase of nine apartment buildings from various real estate investment trusts, which resulted in a substantial increase in the number of affordable housing units in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Served as borrower counsel to a large national health care system on numerous tax-exempt bond issues totaling over $1.5 billion to finance a variety of acquisitions, construction and infrastructure projects.
Assisted the trust department of a national banking association with its duties under an indenture of trust involving the dissolution of a defaulted single-family mortgage revenue bond program and the hundreds of corresponding home mortgages.
Helped to successfully complete the first issuance in Arizona of tax-exempt bonds for a federally qualified health center that financed the rehabilitation and repurposing of a long-time abandoned building in central Phoenix for use as a community health center, in her role as general counsel to the conduit bond issuing authority.
Chaired the board of directors of a local nonprofit serving the social needs of the vulnerable during a period of enormous transition and growth that expanded its programs to improve the health and well-being of the community.