NABL awards honor congressman, prominent tax lawyer

The National Association of Bond Lawyers will award Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., the Bernard P. Friel Medal and David Cholst the Frederick O. Kiel Distinguished Service Award for their individual contributions to NABL and to the industry over the last four decades.

Those will be given out during NABL's The Workshop 2024, held in Chicago Sept. 18-20.

Ruppersberger will be retiring at the close of the 118th Congress on Jan. 2, 2025, capping a 38 year career in public office and 22 years in the House. Within the muni industry, Ruppersberger, building on his past experience as an elected representative to the Baltimore County Council, created the bipartisan House Municipal Finance Caucus in 2016. He currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee, the Defense subcommittee and the Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee.

Ruppersberger was first elected to the Baltimore County Council in 1985, reelected in 1989, and was twice chosen as council chairman. He later became Baltimore County Executive in 1994 and 1998.

He is a native of Baltimore City, and spent his summers growing up as a lifeguard in Ocean City, Maryland, as well as a police officer. He attended Baltimore City College and the University of Maryland College Park, where he played lacrosse. He holds a J.D. from the University of Baltimore Law School.

David Cholst has spent his career at Chapman and Cutler in Chicago, first beginning with the firm in 1983 and working his way up to partner in the tax department, where he represented 501(c)(3) organizations, government issuers, underwriters, and counsel in all matters related to tax-exempt bonds.

His work included providing advice on 501(c)(3) financings, tax increment financings, advance refundings and their alternatives, structured investments, derivative products, output facilities, pre-payment transactions, voluntary closing agreements and defense of IRS audits of tax-exempt bonds.

From 2009 to 2012, Cholst was a member of the Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities, where he provided feedback to the Internal Revenue Service. He was also a member of NABL's steering committee for The Workshop and The Institute.

His other work with NABL included a variety of common projects, such as those related to political subdivisions, working capital financings, SLGS, derivative products and opinions. He is recently retired.