Amy M. McClain

Amy M. McClain represents housing authorities and affordable housing developers in mixed-finance transactions. Based in Baltimore, she chairs Ballard Spahr’s Real Estate Department. Amy closes affordable housing transactions involving funding sources that include Low Income Housing Tax Credits, the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, public housing and Section 8 funding, HUD-insured loans, tax-exempt bonds, state housing finance agency loan funds and conventional financing.

Her transactional work involves negotiating issues among financing parties, housing authorities and developers, as well as coordinating U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development review and approval processes. Amy also addresses traditional real estate issues intertwined with affordable housing development.

• Represents a national affordable housing developer in its projects in various states, including the redevelopment of former public housing and other HUD-financed properties involving low-income housing tax credit equity, state and local financing resources, and operating subsidies
• Represented the Housing Authorities of Fresno on various transactions, including four of the country's first Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversions
• Represents the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in relation to its comprehensive revitalization of 60,000 public housing units, including assisting NYCHA with closing the first RAD/PACT conversions of more than over 7,100 units; previously assisted NYCHA with the acquisition/rehabilitation tax credit transaction closed under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act HUD programs and the current conversion of 1,395 public housing units under HUD's RAD program
• Represented the Puerto Rico Public Housing Administration in the nation's largest bond issuance and Low Income Housing Tax Credit acquisition/rehabilitation transaction, involving more than $700 million in funds for the modernization of more than 4,000 units within 33 public housing developments
• Represented the Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver in its acquisition/rehabilitation Low Income Housing Tax Credit transaction, which maximized the tax credit-eligible basis generated by Energy Performance Contract improvements to three high-rise public housing sites

• University of Maryland School of Law (J.D. 2002, with honors)
  Student Lawyer, Community Transactions Clinic; Member, Order of the Coif; Associate Editor, Maryland Law Review
• American University (B.A. 1993, magna cum laude)

• Fellow, American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), Class of 2022
• The Best Lawyers in America, Real Estate Law, 2021-2027; "Lawyer of the Year," Real Estate Law (Baltimore), 2027
• Legal 500, Real Estate - Land Use/Zoning, 2023-2026; Real Estate - Real Estate, 2022-2025; Real Estate - Real Estate Finance, 2023-2025
• Lawdragon, 500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers, 2024-2026
• Connect CRE, Lawyers in Real Estate Award (Washington, D.C.), 2023
• Named one of The Daily Record's (Maryland) Top 100 Women in Maryland for 2014, for achievement of professional success and for making a difference through leadership, community service, and mentoring
• Named to The Daily Record's (Maryland) 2011 Leading Women list, one of 46 women under the age of 40 recognized for their exceptional professional experience, community involvement, and commitment to inspiring change

• Baltimore Affordable Housing Trust Fund Commission
• American Bar Association, Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, Past Chair
• Housing and Development Law Institute

• Co-author, "Cross-Cutting Requirements: Federal-Wide Requirements Impacting HUD Programs," Navigating HUD Programs: A Practitioners' Guide to the Labyrinth, American Bar Association, 2024
• Beginner’s Guide to Public Housing Conversion under RAD, published by the ABA's Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development, August 2014
• Co-author, "Mixed-Finance Development of Public Housing," ABA's Legal Guide to Affordable Housing Development, 2011
• "The Derailing of Maryland Property Law," 60Maryland Law Review1211, 2001