Jonathan is proactive, personable and extremely knowledgeable.

Chambers USA, 2024

Jonathan Frels has spent his entire legal career focused on public law, public finance and state legislative matters, both in private practice and through government service in Texas. He serves as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel and disclosure counsel in public finance transactions for school districts, cities, counties, state agencies, navigation districts, port authorities, economic development corporations, water districts and water authorities. He also represents political subdivisions as general counsel with respect to public law issues. In addition to helping governmental entities and developers meet their infrastructure and financing needs, Jonathan assists governmental bodies, nonprofit corporations and entities that contract with governmental bodies with respect to Public Information Act issues.

In addition to his experience in private practice, Jonathan served as deputy attorney general for legal counsel at the Texas Office of the Attorney General, 2008 – 2010. In this role, he acted as counsel to the attorney general and supervised the Office of the Attorney General’s non-litigation civil legal divisions, including the agency’s Public Finance Division, Opinion Committee, General Counsel Division and Open Records Division. While with the Office of the Attorney General, Jonathan frequently testified before and served as a resource to members and committees of the Texas Legislature on a variety of subjects, including public finance and open government matters.

He also served as chief of the Office of the Attorney General’s Public Finance Division, where he oversaw the division’s review and approval of all bonds and similar financial obligations issued by state agencies, political subdivisions and institutions of higher education, as well as certain nonprofit corporations created to act on behalf of political subdivisions.