Suzanne S. Mayes is a member in Cozen O’Connor’s Business Law Department. She is chair of the Public and Project Finance practice group and serves on the firm’s board of directors. Suzanne joined Cozen O’Connor in June 2007. She focuses her practice on municipal and project finance, particularly in the areas of economic development, transportation, public works, education and housing.
Suzanne serves as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, borrower’s counsel and disclosure counsel to a wide range of public, for-profit, and not-for-profit clients. She regularly acts as bond counsel for state, county and municipal clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware or as special counsel in the context of major capital projects or debt refinancings. Suzanne has completed numerous housing financings for state housing authorities; acted as co-bond counsel in connection with the financing of stadiums; counseled issuers on large-scale general obligation borrowings, student loan bond financings, and airport and toll road issuances; assisted state government with the issuance of unemployment compensation funding revenue bonds; and provided counsel to government entities in connection with public-private and public-public partnerships. She also has extensive knowledge of complex financing structures, including hedging instruments such as swaps, forward delivery financings, and synthetic fixed-rate and variable-rate debt.
Over the last two decades, Suzanne has developed close professional relationships with key government officials at the local, county and state level. Evidence of their high regard for Suzanne’s capabilities is the fact that government representatives often call on her to get involved in their financings. Suzanne’s good rapport and credibility with state and local government officials not only means she is involved in many of the most complex local, county and state financings, it also means she is able to achieve efficient and positive results on behalf of other clients. When appropriate, Suzanne works with Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies to serve as a liaison between the firm’s private clients and government representatives.
In 2010, Suzanne was recognized as one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women in Pennsylvania” by the National Diversity Council. She was the recipient of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Special Achievement Award in 2006 and was honored as one of the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2008 Women of Distinction. Most recently, Suzanne received the Alice Paul Equality Award in 2012, which recognizes individuals with a strong and long-standing commitment to advancing women’s equality.
Admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Suzanne has been recognized as a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer” since 2006. She is a member of the American, Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bar Associations. She is a former member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Delegates, a former board member of that bar association’s Committee on Women in the Profession, and a former chair of the Tax-Exempt Finance Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Business Section. She is a former member of the board of directors of the Delaware Valley Regional Finance Authority. She is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and the Pennsylvania Association of Bond Lawyers. In 2011, she was appointed to the Judicial Nominating Advisory Panel for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In 2012, Suzanne was named as a member of Governor Corbett’s Higher Education Advisory Panel in Pennsylvania.
Suzanne is a founding member of the board of directors of Ladies First, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational and networking opportunities for female public finance professionals in the mid-Atlantic region. She is a member of the board of directors of Mount Saint Joseph Academy and is also a past president of that institution’s Alumnae Association. She serves as a member of the Forum of Executive Women board of directors and as a member of the advisory board of BLOCS (Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools). She is a former member of the board of trustees of Manor College.
Suzanne earned her law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. She received her undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Fairfield University.