Brendan Cournane

November 19, 2015

Brendan Cournane is a public finance attorney who joins Stocks & Jocks every Tuesday morning. He has practiced law for more than 35 years acting primarily as counsel to issuers of municipal debt (bond counsel, underwriters’ counsel, bank counsel and special counsel). He has served in both the private and the public sectors, having been a partner in major U.S. law firms and as in-house counsel to such entities as the City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools, as well as General Counsel to the Illinois Finance Authority, one of the nation’s largest issuers of conduit municipal bonds.

He has worked on transactions in over 35 states for, among others, (i) hospitals and health care systems; (ii) States, Cities and other local municipalities; (iii) Universities and School Districts; (iv) tax increment financing districts; (v) housing developments; (vi) industrial development bonds; and (vii) swaps and derivative transactions in support of bond transactions.

In addition, Brendan is a motivational speaker and avid runner. He speaks to groups about work/life balance and about his marathon travels around the world.

He has trained over 5,000 runners to complete half and full marathons, working with individuals and many charity partners for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Marine Corps Marathon, Disney Marathon events and the Boston Marathon, within the United States, and international marathons in Berlin, London, Dublin, Rome, Paris and Stockholm, among others.

He has personally completed over 90 marathons including a marathon in each of the 50 States and each of the 7 Continents (yes, even Antarctica).

Favorite Sports Moment

• On a personal note – the first time I qualified for the Boston Marathon.
• For professional sports – when the White Sox won the World Series in 2005 (it is more recent than the Bears Super Bowl win or the Bulls championships)

One Thing Listeners Might Not Know About You

I have climbed to the Summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

One Trade You’d Like to Have Back

None. Even though trades have not always worked out the way I expected or hoped they would, if I changed the past, I would not be who or where I am today.