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Financial Institutions Department
Experience
Our firm was the first of the law firms in the Fox Valley
to establish a banking practice. Our practice has now expanded
and has the firepower to provide critical assistance to banks,
savings institutions, credit unions, and securities companies.
The recent repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the continuing
consolidation of the financial services industry, compounded
by revised Article 9 of the UCC, require increasingly specialized
legal knowledge. The firm has responded to this client need
by assembling a team of experienced and skilled Attorneys,
drawn from many areas of its practice.
Our Financial Institutions team consists of Attorneys and
staff with the capability to handle sophisticated commercial
loan transactions. We represent lenders from structuring and
negotiating the transaction, preparing term sheets and commitment
letters, conducting legal due diligence, and documenting the
final agreement. We are experienced in lien perfection, workout/restructuring
and enforcement of remedies.
Our firm's Financial Institutions Department also has experience
in representing clients in all aspects of corporate law affecting
financial institutions, including the creation and structuring
of holding companies, the acquisition and merger of banks
and other financial institutions, and the financing of those
institutions through public securities offerings, private
placements and the issuance of trust preferred, subordinated
and other forms of debt offerings.
Our Financial Institutions Department has a hard-earned reputation
of expertise in commercial lending. We pride ourselves in
our expertise in secured/unsecured loan structuring, negotiation
and documentation, tax exempt financing, construction and
real estate lending, and mortgage securitization. Our integrated
practice emphasizes limiting our clients' credit risk through
strategic documentation and credit structuring. We have expertise
in providing representation after borrower default and insolvency.
Our Attorneys have experience representing financial institutions
in out-of-court workouts, receivership, reorganization, and
bankruptcy.
We would be delighted to help you with your legal questions.
Please contact our office, toll free, at 800-333-5201, 24
hours a day, or send us an email
to schedule a consultation with one of our Attorneys.
Practice Areas
Loan Restructuring and Workouts
Dealing with problem assets and problem loans require seasoned
and knowledgeable Attorneys. Our Attorneys have negotiated
and documented numerous debt restructure, business workout,
corporate reorganization transactions, and deed-in-lieu of
foreclosure transactions. With our interdepartmental expertise,
we can assist a loan officer in salvaging a deteriorating
loan or re-securitize an under collateralized loan.
We represent lending institutions in connection with problem
asset and problem loan transactions. The firm also represents
clients with the purchasing or leasing of problem assets,
the managing of assets foreclosed on or otherwise acquired
by lenders, and investments in bankrupt and insolvent companies.
Our Attorneys have been involved in transactions involving
assets other than real estate, including radio stations, farm
properties and manufacturing companies.
Our loan documentation practitioners assist in secured and
unsecured commercial loans of all sizes, staffing each transaction
according to its legal complexity and the lender's (or borrower's)
budget for transaction costs. Our team has the resources to
meet the fast-track time schedules often imposed on large
transactions. With an extensive library of firm-crafted model
loan documents with which to work, we have been able to meet
tight time requirements, in some cases producing initial drafts
on a same-day basis. We also document the restructuring of
troubled loans both in and out of bankruptcy.
Foreclosure
and Insolvency
We have experience in all aspects of loan enforcement including
judicial and non-judicial foreclosures, exercise of assignments
of rents, seeking and obtaining appointment of receivers and
enforcement of loan guaranties. We have represented both lenders
and receivers with respect to court-appointed receiverships.
We have represented secured lenders in connection with borrower
bankruptcies and insolvencies, including the negotiation and
implementation of cash collateral orders, and have litigated
the enforceability of assignments of rents in bankruptcy and
motions for relief from the automatic stay.
Small
Business Administration Loan Program Administration (SBA 504)
The Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corporation of
Oshkosh (WBD) has
retained our firm to provide legal counseling for its growing
organization. WBD offers SBA 504 loans to small businesses
in the Oshkosh and Fox Valley area which are not available
through private lenders. These programs provide small businesses
with long-term, fixed-rate financing for major real estate
and equipment purchases. Since 1981, WBD has participated
in nearly $1 billion in financing resources for over 1,000
Wisconsin business projects. The WBD has helped to create
over 22,000 jobs. For more information about WBD, or to obtain
SBA eligibility information, call 800-536-6799.
Real
Estate Lending
In addition to our work with WBD, we offer institutional investors,
developers and lenders a complete range of real estate acquisition,
development, management, financial and disposition legal services.
Our lawyers serve our clients in the Fox Cities and have branched
out into neighboring counties in Northeastern Wisconsin. What
distinguishes our lawyers is the close working relationships
we maintain with our clients, our belief in value-based legal
services and our wide range of experience in the many facets
of real estate and land use law. We work closely with other
practice teams such as tax, regulation, securities, and environmental
to offer efficient and cost-effective legal services relevant
to the needs of each transaction.
Transactions
Among Lenders and Investors
Our Financial Institutions Department represents financial
institutions in negotiating the terms and drafting the legal
documents for transactions involving acquisition, construction
and working capital loans, asset-based loans, leveraged leasing
transactions, letters of credit, municipal and industrial
bonds and other financing vehicles. We can provide assistance
from straightforward contract and loan negotiation and documentation
to complex loan restructuring and sophisticated bankruptcy
reorganization proceedings. Additionally, the firm offers
counsel in asset-based lending, traditional secured (non-real
estate) bank lending, lease-related transactions, general
commercial transactions, and sophisticated Uniform Commercial
Code transactions.
Representation
of Junior and Senior Lenders
The firm represents, on a transactional basis, many Wisconsin-based
financial institutions and other types of creditors. Additionally,
members of the practice group have represented national asset-based
lending institutions with respect to loan origination and
loan enforcement transactions. We have experience representing
both junior and senior creditor-lenders in financial litigation
and bankruptcy proceedings, and can often negotiate a favorable
position for our clients.
Business
and Acquisition Financing/Commercial Lending
We represent lenders in the full spectrum of traditional as
well as innovative financing activities, such as corporate
lending, structured finance and asset-based transactions,
real estate finance and reorganization and creditors' rights.
Our business and acquisition practice was built on our representation
of clients in connection with commercial loan facilities,
including working capital lines, cash-flow and hybrid facilities.
We are most often involved from the proposal stage in structuring
deals, and we regularly assist lenders and borrowers. We are
also active in tender offer and acquisition financings where
we represent financial clients in transactions that involve
a multi-tier capitalization structure with subordinated debt
and/or preferred equity issuances, often subscribed to in
whole or part by client affiliates.
Lender
Liability/Fraudulent Conveyance Claims
With the broadening of traditional common law theories to
lender activities, and the application of statutory schemes
such as RICO, securities, antitrust and environmental laws
to lending transactions, our Financial Institution Department
has been at the forefront of developments in the area of lender
liability. The foundation of our lender liability practice
is the experience its lawyers have had over many years in
representing lending institutions, through which they have
gained a detailed familiarity with banking practices and procedures.
As trial counsel, we have represented many financial institutions
faced with fraudulent conveyance, preference, "bad faith"
and other claims, both traditional and novel.
Professional
Commercial Law Seminars Tailored to Financial Institutions,
Finance Attorneys, and Banking Professionals
Our Financial Institutions Department is proud of its practice
and its demonstrated service to lending institutions in the
Fox Valley. In order to continue to enhance our expertise
as well as provide a service to this industry, we are developing
a series of free seminars dealing with the legal issues confronted
by lending institutions on a daily basis.
Financial Institutions Team
Attorney Robert M. Sigman
Attorney Richard A. Stack, Jr.
Attorney Ana B. Rattray
Attorney Brian P. Hodgkiss
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