Overview
Serving the Financial Ecosystem
Because of our deep understanding of the business and legal issues faced by sophisticated creditors, clients rely on us to provide practical and efficient solutions.
Our clients include:
- Banks, credit unions, and finance companies
- Landlords
- Leasing companies
- Manufacturers and other vendors
- Other secured and unsecured lenders, including institutional investors and high net worth individuals
- Private banking and trust operations
Comprehensive Range of Legal Services
In representing our clients in everything from ordinary course and financially troubled transactions to litigation, we offer our clients a broad and extensive range of legal services:
- Articles 3 and 4 claims and defenses, including defense of claims of forged and altered checks and negotiable instruments
- Assessing and managing risks from environmental issues as part of due diligence in lending or foreclosure decisions
- Commercial lending advice and documentation
- Construction loan documentation and enforcement
- Defense and protection of creditors in civil and bankruptcy proceedings
- Factoring and other asset-based lending advice and documentation
- Guarantees and third-party pledges
- Inter-creditor agreements, loan participations and syndications, and inter-creditor disputes
- Letter of credit transactions
- Loan assumptions and reaffirmations
- Loan sales and assignments
- Loans to technology companies, including creation and perfection of security interests in intellectual property
- Real estate lending and project finance advice and documentation
- Warrants and other equity participations
- Wire transfer fraud defense and prosecution
- Workouts, remedial actions, writs and receivers, foreclosures and other enforcement actions on behalf of secured or unsecured creditors, including actions in state, federal and bankruptcy courts
Experience
- Represented global commercial lender in successful negotiation of full repayment after borrower’s default under term loan and line of credit, with recovery totaling in excess of $5,000,000, including principal, interest, late fees, and attorneys’ fees.
-
Successfully negotiated and documented sale of loan secured by real property at par for regional commercial bank, involving multi-million dollar loan secured by hotel impacted by the pandemic and complicated by internal dispute between borrower entity members.
-
After initiating enforcement efforts, successfully negotiated a repayment for a major international bank of an $11 million defaulted loan secured by a distressed property in an urban downtown.
-
Represented national commercial lender in a claim against borrower and other parties for recovery of diverted collateral. Obtained payment of multimillion dollar credit in full and restructured related credits through a multi-party settlement agreement.
- Represented a large regional bank in a series of related construction loans secured by deeds of trust on land to be developed as a mixed use project including a hotel and retail space.
- Represented real estate secured lender in judicial foreclosure of undeveloped real property, obtaining full payment of all principal, interest, fees and costs.
-
Represented a regional bank in the sale of three problem construction loans aggregating more than $15 million in principal to an investor.
-
Represented a major Bay Area municipality in the Chapter 11 filing by one of the largest terminal operators at a West Coast port.
-
Successfully represented creditor in appeal by debtor of lower court rulings. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of our client that the bankruptcy judge and district judge did not err allowing our client, the holder of a multimillion-dollar fraudulent-transfer judgment against a Chapter 7 debtor who diligently prosecuted his case, extra time to effect service of process in an adversary proceeding to have the debt declared nondischargeable.
Money Matters
Money Matters: You Obtained a Judgment, Now What?
In this segment of Money Matters, Liam O'Connor provides creditors with an introduction to California's Enforcement of Judgments Law. Read more »
Bankruptcy Bytes: Introduction to the 2004 Examination
In this segment of Bankruptcy Bytes, Liam O'Connor and Andrew Ditlevsen give an introduction to the 2004 examination. Read more »
Bankruptcy Bytes: Ipso Facto Clauses
In our latest Bankruptcy Byte, Rachael Hiatt discusses how Ipso Facto clauses relate to bankruptcy, and how they might affect your contract. Read more »
H&C Bankruptcy Bytes: Update on Retroactive Relief from Automatic Stay
In our latest Bankruptcy Byte, Erika Gasaway gives an update on Retroactive Relief from Automatic Stay. Read more »
New Law Changes Homestead Exemption
On September 18, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1885 ("AB 1885"), which significantly increases the creditor homestead exemption for personal residences in California. Read more »