Jonathan Ballan, who was head of Dentons' New York public finance group, has left for Cozen O'Connor. Ballan, who is joining Cozen O'Connor with another former Dentons attorney, Robert Owen Senzer, will co-chair Cozen O'Connor's public and project finance practice group.

In recent years, Ballan has overseen financings for Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and the LaGuardia Airport Terminal B reconstruction project in Queens.

Ballan also served as special counsel to the Empire State Development Corp., leading a legal team that created the New York Liberty Development Corp., which issued New York Liberty Bonds for commercial projects to help New York City following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He has previously served as bond counsel or underwriter's counsel for state fiscal oversight boards in the city of Buffalo and Nassau County.

Cozen O'Connor said Ballan will “play a major role” in helping the firm expand its public finance practice, which negotiates financings and refinancings on behalf of government, nonprofit and private sector clients to fund infrastructure, education, housing, senior living, health care, energy, and economic development projects. Ballan will work with Philadelphia-based co-chair Suzanne Mayes, the firm said.

Ballan said he joined Cozen O'Connor after eyeing the firm “for many years,” while Cozen O'Connor has “been watching me for many years.” Ballan said he anticipates his clients will join him at Cozen O'Connor.

At Cozen O'Connor, “there is a bigger and broader public finance practice,” including full-time tax specialists and other experts who work with the practice, he said. Altogether, Cozen O'Connor's public finance practice has about 10 full-time attorneys, he said.

Ballan is the most recent public finance attorney to leave Dentons after a group of public finance attorneys in other offices left last year. Ballan said he and Senzer, who was counsel at Dentons and joins Cozen O'Connor as of counsel, were the only full-time public finance attorneys in Dentons' New York office.

Ballan is one of several legacy McKenna Long & Aldridge partners to leave Dentons this year, after the McKenna-Dentons merger in 2015. As reported by ALM affiliate Daily Report, some exits this year follow the expiration of a “commitment agreement” that legacy McKenna equity partners signed before the merger with Dentons. Under the agreement, legacy McKenna partners would have forfeited their capital contribution if they left for another firm before 2018.

While that agreement “had an effect on my former colleagues,” Ballan noted his departure is in late April and the arrangement “wasn't an impetus to my departure or the timing of it.” He added, “you have to give a place a couple years to give it a fair evaluation.”

Ballan said his move away from Dentons was not acrimonious. He said he thinks highly of the firm and he “looks forward to collaborating with Dentons whenever possible.”

A Dentons spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ballan's exit.

Ballan is currently director of the State of New York Mortgage Agency. He previously served as a board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation for the City of New York; and chairman of the New York State Public Asset Fund. He was also a member of the New York State Watershed Protection and Partnership Council, a board member of the New York City Environmental Control Board, and a board member of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.

Ballan said his significant experience serving on boards of agencies “allows me to understand the issues in government and in boards,” which strengthens his public finance practice.