Our Creditors’ Rights, Special Assets & Workout team, which includes nationally recognized lawyers, brings a deep well of knowledge and a variety of corporate and litigation skill sets to help clients navigate this complex and heavily regulated area of financial services law. Clients say they appreciate our ability to conduct a quick but detailed analysis of the underlying transaction in question and then identify and present strategic options to reach the best outcome possible. Drawing on a combination of both institutional knowledge built from decades of experience and cutting-edge technology and service delivery models, we deliver effective yet efficient legal service – always in close collaboration with clients.
We counsel clients in a wide range of industries – including both large prestigious financial institutions and small community banks – on issues that arise in loan workouts, corporate reorganizations, restructurings, commercial foreclosures, receiverships, forbearance agreements, pre-workout loan modification arrangements, asset purchases, debtor-in-possession negotiations and other matters. On the litigation and dispute-resolution front, clients turn to us for guidance in debtor-creditor disputes of nearly every stripe in federal and state courts and other venues.
Consider just a few of the ways in which we have helped clients:
- We represented a significant creditor in a defaulted municipal bond case, including receiver litigation, regarding a water and sewer system. This $3.2 billion workout involved complex negotiations with multiple institutions and legislative action to augment revenues to pay the bond debt. Our team believes this and other such matters position us well for what’s emerging as a fast-growing need across the nation: legal and business counsel on infrastructure financing and defaults on existing bonds.
- A major financial institution we represent recently experienced difficulties with one of its borrowers in the oil and gas industry. Complications surfaced with the credit, involving interest rate valuations and other issues. We advised them on how to restructure their credit, protect their interest in their collateral and work through ways to provide debtor-in-possessor financing, allowing them to restructure. Our client appreciated the favorable outcome we were able to accomplish.
- In a hospital bankruptcy matter, we advised the bank regarding its options on restructuring the loan, and bank officials decided to provide additional financing to help the hospital push through the bankruptcy. We negotiated the terms of the new deal, obtained court approval, and documented and closed debtor-in-possession financing, which granted the hospital the opportunity to reorganize, exit the bankruptcy and move forward.
Summary
In the initial analysis of a matter, our team reviews the underlying documents to determine the relationship between the lender and borrower. Relying on our extensive experience – we’ve seen a lot over the years – we determine whether the documents contain valid security interest or deficiencies. If deficiencies do exist, we then look for various ways to address them and quickly devise and implement a plan to achieve a pre-bankruptcy workout, a re-organization, or a workout and liquidation in bankruptcy – always paying close attention to our client’s overall objectives as well as the granular details that are key to making things work.
Clients retain us for many reasons, not the least of which is the consistency in the advice we dispense throughout our broad, eight-state regional footprint. We match experienced attorneys with the matter at hand, which saves time and resources. Clients value our team’s ability to pull in lawyers from our firm’s other practice groups and across state lines. For example, if one of our many financial services clients is making a loan to a property developer and needs our counsel, often we will consult with our firm’s real estate lawyers, frequently placing one of them on the engagement team.
We work hard to stay abreast of the changes in the always-evolving regulatory arena as well as the ins and outs of our clients’ businesses. Because our team includes many former in-house lawyers from financial service firms, we offer an informed, inside-the-company perspective. This enhances our ability to serve clients and increases efficiency.
We partner with our clients and serve as trusted advisors, helping them maximize their returns, create new streams of income and operate more efficiently.
Defining Strengths
Among the many other areas in which we counsel clients are:
- Corporate restructuring
- Asset purchases
- Debtor-in-possession matters
- Pre-workout loan modification arrangements
- Forbearance agreements
- Trustees and bondholders representation
