Miyoko Sato entered Northeastern Law intent on practicing criminal law and planned her co-ops accordingly. When the time came for her final co-op, she decided — almost on a whim — to try out a big firm. That firm was Mintz, and it’s where she has made her professional home for the past 25 years as a public finance attorney, specializing in distressed and defaulted deals.

“To be a tax-exempt deal, there needs to be some governmental touch,” she explains. “It could be a major hospital system or a waste-to-energy company. The IRS says, ‘OK, we won’t tax the interest income on these bonds because we think the United States gets a benefit.’ Then, uh oh, looks like things aren’t going so well. The health system is failing or the project’s technology doesn’t work. Investors call us to maximize their capital recovery. It’s super fun. There’s the technical end of the law, which is complicated. There are the business issues, which are six dimensional, and then there’s the human element, where you sit across from a human being, look them in the eye and try to figure out what’s driving their decisionmaking. I would never have known this kind of practice existed if I hadn’t gone to a law school with a co-op program.”

In addition, Sato chairs Mintz’s Equity Advisory Council, responsible for driving equity, particularly for the firm’s attorneys who identify as women, people of color and LGBTQ+ — work she considers to be deeply meaningful. “If I can participate in helping Mintz continue to improve on diversity, that will be the most valuable thing I’ve done in my career.”