A lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in public finance, currently Managing Partner at Foley & Judell, L.L.P, and NABL president through September 2025. He shares his goals for the coming year, advice for attorneys, and why volunteering is so important. Meet Jason Akers.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into bond law.

I graduated from Ole Miss Law School in 2000 and began working for a larger regional firm. There was a single partner in the entire firm who focused on bond law – primarily K-12 education issuers – and I was lucky enough that he took me under his wing. The first bond issue I worked on was a $6 million project to double the size of an elementary school, and I was hooked. 

What inspired you to join NABL, and how has your membership impacted your career?

When I realized after that first bond issue that I wanted to make a career as a bond lawyer, joining NABL was the next logical step. I quickly realized that this is not a normal field of law – I’m reminded of that every time I try to explain to someone what I do for a living! NABL gave me the educational and networking opportunities I couldn’t get anywhere else. There are people I met at my very first NABL event with whom I still communicate today. 

Tell us about your path to NABL President; how did you start volunteering on committees, projects, and serving on the Board of Directors?

I actually mentioned this in my speech at the Annual Meeting. My mentor, Meredith Hathorn, was one of the co-chairs of the Third Edition of The Functions and Professional Responsibility of Bond Counsel, and she brought me on to help. That experience introduced me to a number of prominent NABL members: former Presidents Allen Robertson, Drew Kintzinger, and Wally McBride; Buddy Downs and Tyler Kalachnik from Ice Miller in Indianapolis; and others. It also began to build my NABL resume and gave me a reason to reach out to others to volunteer. I am convinced that is how I ended up on the faculty for the Fundamentals Seminar (now The Essentials) for the first time in 2009. I just made a cold call to Tyler Smith, the conference chair, but I made sure to highlight my experience on a current NABL project. Next thing I knew, I was in Memphis on faculty. If you are willing to walk through, all you need is a crack in the door.

Obviously, that was only the beginning of my story. I served on faculty for three years, then vice-chair, then chair of the seminar formerly known as Fundamentals in 2013. After that, I served in various positions on the NABL Education Committee, on the steering committee for The Workshop, and volunteered for other projects along the way. I was nominated to the Board in 2017. 

What are your goals as president this year?

While our committees have a number of projects currently ongoing, any discussion of the coming year requires us to talk about the potential of tax reform. We have been hard at work strategizing our legislative approach for the coming year. We have prepared a Strategic Action Plan that will guide our interaction with the 119th Congress. The Plan is designed to solidify NABL’s position as the “go to” authority on matters relating to public finance law, educate the public and decisionmakers on the value of all tax-exempt bonds, and support our peer associations to advance and defend shared legislative priorities.

I am also very excited the Board approved the formation of the NABL Young Lawyers Network. The YLN is designed to provide a forum for NABL members who have been practicing bond law for less than 10 years.  YLN is more than a social club. It will be a forum for its members to discuss topics, ask for advice, and build a network of professionals on whom they can rely throughout their career. It will also help connect YLN members with the leaders of various projects to assist in research, drafting, and formulation of concepts.  We will spend the coming year getting YLN off the ground and building the foundation for success. I encourage anyone who is interested in this group to email me or a NABL staff member to ask how to get involved.

What advice would you give new attorneys?

Don’t forget how critical the little things can be. Back to my personal story, I am pretty sure I wasn’t the best faculty member in my early years on Fundamentals, but I think I did the little things well – submitted outlines on time, participated on conference calls, and made sure I was present when I was supposed to be. That kept me around.

I created a “Helpful Hints” document that I share with new hires at my firm as part of their training. Its lessons are simple but important: be on time with tasks and for meetings, realize that the appearance of your document can be as important as its content, treat others with respect, etc. These are the things that give your clients and your peers confidence that they can rely on you, and when they can rely on you, they keep calling you!

One other piece of advice: don’t be afraid to take the initiative. If you see something not being handled in a transaction, volunteer to handle it. If a business opportunity is languishing, volunteer to pursue it. If you want to be part of a NABL opportunity, just volunteer! Learn to do this with the proper amount of tact, and you will make yourself a valuable commodity.

What is your new favorite book, podcast, and/or TV show?

Does the new Model Bond Opinion count? No?

OK, let’s start with books. I really wish I could read for enjoyment more than I do, but when I can, I like to alternate historical/historical fiction with other novels. My favorite current authors are Ava Glass (who writes spy novels based primarily in London) and Brian Panowich (who writes mob-style novels about a fictional county in north Georgia). It seems that several of the current historical novels I have read have been based in World War II Europe, but I did just read a really interesting biography of John Hancock, the original signer of the Declaration of Independence. He had quite a story and offers a peculiar lesson in leadership.

Much of the rest of my time is spent doing other things. I start my mornings with a little exercise and then catch up on news before I begin work. On those evenings when I don’t travel or have other engagements, I enjoy cooking or, at the very least, helping with dinner when I get home from the office. (To be fair, though, sometimes my “helping” is merely opening a bottle of wine.) That leaves little time for podcasts or binging shows. I am a big sports fan, so I can usually find a live event on TV that keeps me engaged for a few minutes.