Ann Fillingham Selected for Michigan Lawyers Weekly Hall of Fame Class of 2024

Dykema, a leading national law firm, announced today that Ann Fillingham was selected as an inductee to the Michigan Lawyers Weekly Hall of Fame. As a member of the Hall of Fame, Fillingham will be recognized at a luncheon on April 26, 2024. In addition, a special Hall of Fame supplement will be published in Michigan Lawyers Weekly on the same day.

According to the publication, the Hall of Fame program recognizes Michigan’s legal leaders for their successful careers and valuable contributions to the community. “These legendary lawyers have made their mark, either in the courtroom or the boardroom, in their law firms or legal departments, with community organizations, and with local, state, and national bar associations.”

Fillingham is one of the most respected bond lawyers in the State of Michigan and throughout the country. During her career, she was a leader in the area of public finance law. Fillingham is the former Director of Dykema’s Regulated Industry Department and also spent time serving as the head of Dykema’s Public Finance Practice Group and its Government Restructuring Team.

In her practice, Fillingham's principal areas of focus include public and structured finance, infrastructure finance, and transactional work for financial institutions. In the public finance arena, she has served as bond counsel and underwriter's counsel to numerous state and local issuers. Fillingham has built a reputation for her innovative and creative approach to lawyering while serving as an integral part of many of her client's most important financial restructurings. She has worked extensively with the State of Michigan and its various departments and authorities with respect to both taxable and tax-exempt issues. In addition, she has served as bond counsel or underwriter's counsel on many county, municipal, school, and local authority bond issues and many conduit transactions for acute care and continuing care facilities, and economic development projects.

In the corporate and finance arena, Fillingham works extensively with financial institutions to structure and document both taxable letter of credit enhanced debt offerings and commercial finance transactions. Her areas of practice in this discipline include transactional negotiation and documentation, commercial lending, and federal and state regulatory compliance work for lending institutions.

Fillingham has been involved in matters that have allowed her to make an impact on the State of Michigan, the City of Detroit, Detroit Schools, Little Caesar’s Arena, the City of Allen Park, the Michigan Departments of Treasury and Transportation, the Detroit Water and Sewage Department, the Public Lighting Authority, Wayne County, the Great Lakes Water Authority, the Michigan State Building Authority, and the Michigan Finance Authority.

Outside of her practice, Fillingham served as President of the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) in 2021-22, an organization in which she has held many other leadership positions. She served as a member of the organization’s Board of Directors for seven years, is a past NABL Steering Committee member, the past Chair of the NABL's Bond Attorneys' Workshop, and its General Law and Practice Committee. NABL is an organization that promotes the integrity of the municipal market through the education of its members and the public in the laws affecting state and municipal bonds. Through her leadership with NABL, Ann helped guide the organization in its mission to provide its members with a forum for the exchange of ideas as to law and practice, giving its members tools that help them continually improve the state of the art in the field. She also contributes to the NABL in developing commentary and recommendations at the federal, state and local levels with respect to legislation, regulations and rulings affecting bonds. She regularly speaks at NABL conferences on matters related to public finance. Ann also led the NABL committee that wrote its primer on municipal bankruptcy. Due to her contributions to NABL, she was awarded the organization’s President’s Award in 2018 for her leadership in organizational strategic planning.

Beyond NABL, Fillingham is an active Board member of the Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan, the State’s oldest public policy research organization. In her role on the Board, Ann helps guide the organization through its objective to provide factual, unbiased independent information on significant issues concerning state and local government organization and finance—and that the use of this information by policymakers will lead to sound, rational public policy.

Fillingham is also a Past President of Michigan Women in Finance, which brings together issuers, bankers, legal counsel, trust officers, underwriters, analysts, and others to provide an opportunity to gain insight into the marketplace while expanding their professional network.

Fillingham's work representing her clients has earned her various professionally related recognition. She was a member of the legal team that Bond Buyer recognized for completing the Midwest Deal of the Year in 2018. She also played a vital role in a transaction that Bond Buyer recognized as the nation’s Public Finance Deal of the Year in 2012.