About Bruce

Bruce D. Donaldson, a partner in Barnes & Thornburg LLP’s Indianapolis, Indiana office, concentrates his practice in the area of municipal finance. Mr. Donaldson serves as bond counsel for counties, cities, towns, and schools to finance public buildings, infrastructure, and other local public improvements through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds. He has served as bond counsel for virtually every type of local public project, with a particular emphasis on local economic development through the use of creative financing vehicles such as tax increment finance and local economic development income tax bonds. He also assists developers and businesses wishing to locate new facilities in Indiana by negotiating state and local incentive packages. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Public Finance. In recent years, Mr. Donaldson has served as bond counsel, underwriter's counsel, borrower's counsel, and bank counsel on numerous healthcare financing projects for hospitals, nursing homes, senior living facilities, and other healthcare providers. Mr. Donaldson also has worked on several projects involving the financing of sports and entertainment facilities, having served as bond counsel for the Conseco Fieldhouse project and the Lucas Oil Stadium project in Indianapolis and the Performing Arts Center project in Carmel, Indiana, and underwriter’s counsel for the Victory Field project in Indianapolis. Mr. Donaldson has been a regular participant in the legislative process in the Indiana General Assembly. He has drafted, and lobbied on behalf of, various types of legislation affecting local government finance, particularly in the areas of redevelopment law and tax increment finance. An example was the military base reuse statute that Mr. Donaldson drafted on behalf of the Fort Harrison Transition Task Force Corporation. More recently Mr. Donaldson was one of the principal drafters of the enabling legislation that created the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority, which provided the legal avenue for the financing of Lucas Oil Stadium. Mr. Donaldson received his J.D. summa cum laude from the Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington, where he graduated first in his class and served as articles editor of the Indiana Law Journal. Prior to that, in 1981, he earned a B.A. in economics from DePauw University where he was a Malpus Scholar, played on the varsity golf team, and was president of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He is admitted to practice in the state of Indiana.

Practice Areas

Education

• DePauw University, B.A., graduated 1981
• Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, J.D.

Bar Admissions

• Indiana, Indiana Bar Association

Languages