Our team understands the process for structuring, documenting, and closing sophisticated commercial loans in the current environment. We have helped create a financially savvy, client-friendly trend that exists in the current environment.
With decades of experience serving financial institutions, we’re able to answer questions quickly and efficiently, always being attentive to our clients’ best interest. We help structure the deal, draft the loan documents and close the transactions on schedule and as efficiently as possible. Our attorneys have earned a reputation for their ability to craft and implement practical – often creative – solutions to help close deals. These are a few of the diverse ways we help clients in the commercial lending area:
- Counseling lenders in complex syndicated finance projects. For example, our team helped our lender client negotiate and structure a syndicated revolving construction loan of more than $100 million, allowing the borrower access to a line of credit to facilitate the construction of various logistics warehouse projects across the country. Not only did we arrange the syndicated credit for the lender’s part, we assisted with the syndication that extended to the other parties involved in the project. Additionally, we handled locating and advising on the construction loan for the purchase of land and building of the warehouses.
- Counseling clients on loan participations. We help clients navigate the issues that arise when they serve in any one of three different roles – as the lead participant, the buying participant or as members of a participation lending group. We’ve routinely advise clients on participations and have closed participations of $50 million and up.
- Advising on commercial equipment leasing transactions. We recently established an equipment leasing division for one of our large regional banks.
- Structuring and preparing commercial loan documents for financial institutions, including large regional banks, to use as their form documents. When they use standard forms produced by third-party vendors they ask us to review the documents for compliance with state law and/or applicable regulatory requirements.
- Serving as local counsel for large sophisticated commercial loans in multiple states, providing advice on compliance with state law, perfection of security interest and providing opinions of counsel to lead counsel
Summary
The commercial lending landscape fluctuates constantly, often because of regulatory and statutory changes, technological advances and market twists and turns. We closely monitor any moves that might trigger challenges or present opportunities for our clients and – because of our firm-wide commitment to client responsiveness – we regularly update them on the changes and advise them on the best course of action to take. Clients benefit from the broad and deep experience we have across the practice-area spectrum, including our real estate and tax teams.
Collectively, our commercial lending lawyers, and those in our other three financial services teams, serve clients throughout the banking and finance industry, including banks, thrifts, credit unions, mortgage companies, mortgage brokers, structured finance providers, asset-based lenders, specialty lenders and investors, insurance companies, financial industry service providers and commercial consumers of financial services.
We cultivate and maintain close relationships with our clients, develop a partnership built on mutual trust and respect, and get to know their business objectives inside and out. At that point, they become willing to explore the options we present to them, which often include cutting-edge transactions that help them reach their goals more quickly, effectively and efficiently.
Defining Strengths
Among the many other ways we help clients are:
- Assisting in structuring, documenting and closing sophisticated commercial lending transactions throughout our regional footprint and across state lines, using a team approach by including lawyers with knowledge about the various types of collateral and transaction in our different offices. We draw on team members across numerous states, where needed.
- Drafting contracts and agreements with vendors of products used to electronically provide financial services by Internet access or direct interface with the computer systems of financial services providers.
- Advising on shared marketing Internet websites that provide access to financial quotes and products, including banking related services, securities and insurance.
- Representing clients in domestic and international transactions involving letters of credit, including credit enhancement for bond issues.
- Advising clients in specialty lending transactions involving all size vessels and aircrafts, including perfection of liens under federal and state laws.
