Public Finance Attorney Shaney B. Lokken Joins Hunton Andrews Kurth in Continued Expansion of Firm’s Atlanta Presence

Shaney B. Lokken, a public finance attorney with two decades of experience representing issuers, borrowers, underwriters and purchasers in a wide range of transactions, has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as a counsel in Atlanta.

Lokken’s public finance experience includes financings for state and local governments and nonprofit issuers. She represents governmental issuers, investment banks and conduit borrowers as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter’s counsel in a variety of tax-exempt financings for healthcare, higher education, assisted living facility and economic development projects. She also represents nonprofit borrowers and financial institutions in direct purchase, credit enhancement and direct borrowing transactions.

In addition to her extensive experience in private practice, Lokken’s career history includes several years as an in-house attorney in the banking industry. From 2015 to 2017, she worked for SunTrust Bank (now Truist Financial), where she was named senior vice president and security-based swap dealer chief compliance officer. From 2006 to 2014, Lokken served as assistant vice president and assistant general counsel for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, providing guidance to its management and board of directors on a variety of financial institution regulations and disclosure requirements.

Lokken’s addition marks the firm’s latest move in support of its strategic objective to further grow Hunton Andrews Kurth’s footprint in Atlanta. In October, Douglass P. Selby was named managing partner of the Atlanta office. Selby’s appointment was followed in November with the promotion to counsel of Laura T. Wagner, a litigation attorney who focuses on complex commercial, antitrust, class action and business disputes.

“Shaney brings to the firm considerable skill and a unique mix of public finance experience, having represented clients in private practice with a diverse set of objectives and serving as an in-house attorney advising financial institutions on an array of regulatory compliance matters,” said Selby, who co-heads the firm’s public finance group with Thomas A. Sage. “She is an exceptional addition to our practice and the Atlanta office and we’re confident she will thrive at Hunton Andrews Kurth.”

Lokken joins the firm from Murray Barnes & Finister LLP and previously was counsel in Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP. Early in her legal career, she was an associate in the Atlanta office of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP (now Eversheds Sutherland LLP), where she worked on municipal finance and corporate matters. Lokken earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her law degree from the University of Southern California Law School.

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s public finance practice reflects experience in addressing virtually every significant legal issue that affects both governmental financing and tax-exempt financing for nonprofit corporations. The firm has served as bond counsel, special disclosure counsel and counsel to issuers, underwriters, trustees, credit enhancers and institutional investors in transactions throughout the United States.