2024 UNCF Mayor’s Masked Ball – Philadelphia

Lynette M. Brown-Sow is president of L.M Brown Management Group, LLC, a strategic consultancy firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Brown-Sow’s extensive experience in board governance, organizational development, marketing and communications, and government relations spans a career of more than 50 years in the private and public sectors.

Her proven expertise and solutions-oriented leadership style are rooted in what she deems the 3 V Approach: Vision. Values. Voice. In summation, the 3 V Approach asserts that: the vision, values, and voice of an entity must be mission-focused for it to become, and remain, a force for change.

The level of excellence that Brown-Sow consistently delivers is a testament to her belief in the purpose and power of boards: the board not only has legal and fiduciary responsibility but lays the foundation for a striving organization. Through her firm, she ensures clients achieve their desired goals for growth and sustainability by way of service offerings which include but are not limited to: governance, organizational development, strategic development, and branding.

Over the course of a lifetime, Brown-Sow has nurtured the development and wellness of communities by dedicating her personal and professional life to improving the non-profit organizations, businesses, and governments that serve them. She currently sits on numerous local, national, and international boards, working alongside the best and brightest to drive innovation and social impact across diverse sectors and industries.

Brown-Sow holds a BS in Administration from Antioch University; an M.S.S. in Policy, Planning and Development from Bryn Mawr College; a Governing for Non-Profit Excellence certificate from Harvard University Graduate School of Business; and a Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management certificate from Harvard’s Graduate School of Administration.

BOARDS:

Chair, Philadelphia Housing Authority. Chair, Philadelphia Parking Authority. Vice Chair, Board of Directors of City Trust. Chair, Girard College Committee. Vice Chair, Philadelphia Municipal Authority. Chair, Women of Destiny, Inc. Secretary, Crisis Management Services, Inc. Member: Consulting for Human Services, Northwestern Enterprises, Inc and NHS Management Services Company.

AWARDS:

Sammy Award for Outstanding Community Service by the Laborers International Union of North America.

Communicator of the Year by the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations.

The Energy for the Community Award from PECO.

One of  the Philadelphia Tribune’s Most Influential African Americans since 2013.

Named as one of Philadelphia’s Leading Women in the book, “They Carried Us: The Social Impact of Philadelphia’s Black Women Leaders.”

Recognized as one of 100 Distinguished Alumni at Bryn Mawr College

City & State PA “Fifty over Fifty award

Robert L. Archie, Jr. concentrates his practice in the areas of municipal finance, real estate and corporate law for non-profit corporations. He is a member of the National and Pennsylvania Associations of Bond Lawyers and a former chair of the Real Estate and Commercial Law sections of the National Bar Association. A member of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Mr. Archie is a past chair of the Tax-Exempt Finance Committee of the Business Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association and is a former member of the Section’s exempt executive committee.

Mr. Archie represents cities, political subdivisions, school districts, municipal authorities and underwriters in connection with the issuance of variable and fixed-rate tax-exempt bonds and notes. He counsels clients who are providing goods and services to cities, political subdivisions and agencies, in their responses to request for proposals. In addition, his clients include non-profit corporations and limited partnerships engaged in the development and construction of housing facilities for persons of low- and moderate income. The development projects he has been involved in range from housing cooperatives, condominiums, churches, supermarkets, charter schools, strip shopping malls, hospitals, convention centers and multifamily high-rise developments for the elderly. He has also acted as local and special counsel to lenders providing construction and permanent loans for development in the City of Philadelphia and surrounding counties.

A 1970 graduate of Howard University School of Law and Lincoln University, Mr. Archie has served as an adjunct professor at Temple University School of Law and was a board member of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which provides financial assistance to cities of the first class in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He serves on the board of Lincoln University.

Representative Matters

• Represented a non-profit corporation in connection with a 99-year ground lease with trustees of the University of Pennsylvania calling for Penn to demolish an existing office building in Philadelphia and to build a new first class medical office building in its place; as part of the transaction, Penn will sublease back to the client a 25,000 square foot space in the new office building for the term of the ground lease to use for its mission.
• Representation of one of the nation’s largest public housing authorities which develops and provides low to moderate income housing to more than 78,000 people in Philadelphia, providing assistance in complex public and private financing transactions needed by the authority for its developments. Recent transactions include the $170 million 550-home Tasker neighborhood development, the $74 million, 247-home Martin Luther King development and the $24 million overhaul of the Suffolk Manor Senior Home.
• Bond counsel to Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development for a $19.75 million multifamily housing project.
• Bond counsel to Philadelphia Municipal Authority for $97.5 million Juvenile Justice Center.
• Representation of Philadelphia Housing Authority in sale of 150 affordable housing units in the City of Philadelphia.
• Representation of a community development corporation in the acquisition and development of a five-acre tract of land adjacent to Temple University.
• Bond counsel to Community Development Corporation in the acquisition and development of 465-bed student housing facility for off-campus housing at Temple University.
• Representation of three large religious organizations in the acquisition and construction of their facilities in the City of Philadelphia and their Community Development Corporations.
• Bond counsel to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development in connection with the sale and securitization of the first-ever tax lien securitization to be undertaken in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The City and the School District of Philadelphia each securitized their respective interests in delinquent real property taxes having an aggregate face value of $190 million.
• Served as authority counsel to a public housing authority with respect to its acquisition of a 218-unit affordable housing complex. The project was modernized and substantially rehabilitated into a 161-unit housing complex using a variety of financing techniques.
• Served as underwriter’s counsel for a syndicate of investment banking firms that sold $150.86 million in neighborhood transformation bonds.
• Bond Counsel for a $62.7 million transaction which refunded the outstanding debt of a long term care facility.
• Borrowers counsel to a nonprofit hospital, advising the CFO, board and president on its multimillion dollar restructuring, refinancing and financing of its expansion and major capital projects.

Areas of Practice

• Affordable Housing and Community Development
• Non-Profit Corporations
• Municipal Finance
• Corporate Law and Finance

Admissions

• Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Education

• Howard University School of Law, J.D., 1970

Experience

• Duane Morris LLP – Partner, 1991-present
• Atkinson & Archie, P.C., Philadelphia, PA – Partner, 1976-1991
• Morgan Lewis LLP, Philadelphia, PA – Associate, 1970-1975

Professional Activities

• American Bar Association – Business Law Section
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Philadelphia Bar Association – Business Law Section — Executive Committee — Tax Exempt Finance Committee
• National Bar Association – Real Estate Section – Commercial Law Section — Chairman, 1976-1980
• National Association of Bond Lawyers
• Pennsylvania Association of Bond Lawyers

Honors and Awards

• Recipient, 2017 Universal Community Service Award
• Named one of The Legal Intelligencer’s Diverse Attorneys of the Year, 2011
• Named one of “Philadelphia’s Most Influential African Americans 2010” by The Tribune Newspaper
• AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®

Board Memberships

• Former Board Member of Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority
• Former Board Member, Universal Community Homes
• Board of Trustees of Lincoln University of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education – Member, Executive Committee — Chair, Audit Committee
• The Forum
• Former Chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission

Selected Speaking Engagements

• Moderator, “Inner-City Commercial Development Opportunities and Funding,” Philadelphia, April 16, 1998
• Panelist, “Leveraging Your Diversity,” Philadelphia, April 5, 2008