The Bond Buyer has named Squire Patton Boggs senior associate Ben Tobias as one of its 2026 “Rising Stars.”
The Rising Stars recognition showcases municipal finance professionals under the age of 40 who have demonstrated outstanding leadership skills, are excellent collaborators, have displayed innovation and creativity in approaching their jobs, and have made positive contributions to community, as well as the municipal finance industry.
Ben focuses his practice on debt finance solutions for a wide range of public infrastructure projects, with particular emphasis on airports, water and sewer utilities, and surface transportation providers. He advises clients as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter’s counsel, and borrower’s counsel, and brings deep experience with a variety of conduit financing structures. Ben has guided clients through public offerings, direct purchases, multimodal and variable-rate tender deals, transactions involving credit enhancement facilities such as letters of credit and liquidity facilities, commercial paper programs, and revolving lines of credit.
Ben has played a key role in some of the most significant airport financings in the country. He has served as bond counsel and disclosure counsel to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority on more than $3.4 billion in bond issuances over the past six years. He also served as co-bond counsel to the New York Transportation Development Corporation in connection with the $1.3 billion Terminal 4 financing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Alongside his airport finance work, Ben has built a strong and growing practice in water and wastewater financing, a sector with critical public health and environmental implications. He has served as co-bond counsel and co-disclosure counsel to DC Water for over six years and worked on financings for the Clean Rivers Project, a multi-decade capital improvement to reduce combined sewer overflows into DC’s waterways. Ben has also served as underwriter’s counsel for various water revenue bond issuances for the City of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh Water, and the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Tennessee).
The Bond Buyer will recognize its 2026 Rising Stars honorees at its forthcoming “Infrastructure” event in Chicago on September 15.
