Banks, Financial Institutions
And Private Lenders

Commercial lenders increasingly need the help of outside counsel in each phase of the credit life cycle. Our skilled lender representation team has deep experience representing national and regional banks, financial institutions, and private lenders in complex transactions as well as in state and federal court.

Our litigation expertise allows us to bring an important perspective when it comes to representing our lender clients in transactional situations such as commitment letters, underwriting, and other negotiations.

Because we have seen how many loans have ended up in expensive litigation, we are able to help lenders craft better contracts and eliminate many potential issues early on in the loan life cycle.

Banks, financial institutions, and private lenders need a legal team that not only understands the intricacies of finance, but also has the skills and experience to enforce and protect the legal rights of lenders.Our team is also fully prepared to protect the rights of our lender clients through litigation in state and federal court, including bankruptcy court.

Being able to work with a single firm to help negotiate deals, draft contracts, and handle state and federal litigation issues saves lenders time and money. There is no need to bring a new firm up to speed on any issue. Having a single team handle credit issues through every phase of the credit life cycle is the most efficient and effective way to protect your business.

Our lender specific legal services are intended to protect the interests of commercial lenders and other creditors. These services cover everything from negotiations, contract formation and drafting supporting documents, to loan workouts and restructuring, and pursuing legal remedies through the court system.

We represent lenders in a wide range of legal matters including complex credit transactions, commercial lending, secured and unsecured transactions, equipment lease agreements, tax-exempt transactions, project financing, and letter of credit transactions.

Legal Services we provide creditors, private and commercial lenders:

Commercial Lending Representation

Our team has extensive experience handling a variety of complex and sophisticated commercial lending transactions. We have worked with national and regional lenders in both secured and unsecured transactions. We have successfully handled every part of the commercial lending process including negotiations, structuring the transaction, and properly documenting the transaction for secured, unsecured, asset-based, and commercial loans.

We protect our lender clients by ensuring that regardless of the collateral type, the loans are thoroughly documented and the lender’s rights to collection and litigation are fully preserved in the event of a default.

Learn more about our commercial lending transaction services.

Loan Workout and Restructuring

Loan workouts and restructuring are an increasingly important part of the strategic focus of many lenders. However, these types of negotiations with borrowers also can open up the lender to liability and harm their ability to later collect if the loan remains in default.

We work with lenders to achieve their strategic objectives and maximize their recovery. When negotiating and drafting workout agreements or restructuring a loan we carefully review all of the documentation to make sure all of the nuances of the situation are fully taken in to account.

Our team is comfortable using tools such as collateral turnover agreements, forbearance agreements, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, and other custom agreements to accomplish our client’s objectives.

Creditor Rights/Bankruptcy Representation

Once a borrower files for bankruptcy protection, it is essential that a lender rapidly develops a plan to protect its interests. We work with lenders to develop and execute bankruptcy strategies to mitigate losses and preserve their creditor rights. Our team represents lenders in Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 bankruptcies. We use a variety of tactics to protect creditor rights including filing motions for relief from the automatic stay, filing proofs of claim, adversary complaints, litigating preference claims, objections to the plan, and objecting to the discharge.

Foreclosure Representation

Having an efficient and thorough foreclosure process is essential for lenders and servicers in possession of delinquent mortgages. Sloppy preparation and execution can lead not only to increased losses on individual mortgages, but can open up a lender to even greater liability.

Through our years of experience, we have developed a streamlined and detailed-oriented process for managing foreclosures. We don’t waste time on shortcuts. We make sure every step in the foreclosure process is accurate and fully documented. This avoids wasteful delays and helps our clients navigate the foreclosure process as quickly as possible.

Eviction Process Management

Evicting a tenant after a property that has been foreclosed on can be a long and complex process. Each county in Florida has its own rules that govern the eviction process. Even incidental oversights can result in month long delays for lenders waiting to take back possession. These delays are costly. Our team is familiar with all of the different county rules relating to evictions. We are detail oriented and make sure our clients are able to regain possession as soon as possible.

Our team manages the eviction process for lenders and works with the Clerk of the Court and the local sheriff’s office to make sure all formalities are observed and the process is as streamlined as possible.

Loan Related Litigation Services

We represent lenders in state and federal court at both the trial court level and on appeal on issues relating to loan litigation. We handle a wide range of cases ranging from breach of contract and collection issues to situations where borrowers bring claims against the lender such as seeking to enjoin a foreclosure. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) claims, and Real Estate Settlement Protection Act (RESPA) claims. Our years of litigation experience and deep knowledge of the subject matter allow us to help clients achieve their litigation objectives as efficiently as possible.

Lender liability, as a legal concept, has, since the 1980’s, evolved as a means of protecting borrowers from unfair and predatory lending practices. However, over the years it has morphed into a complex area of law that delinquent borrowers often wield to try and stave off a lender’s collection attempts.

Creditors can easily be swept up in lender liability litigation. It is essential that lenders have sound legal advice as to their policies, procedures, and practice to make sure they are not at risk of significant lender liability damages. When a lender liability claim is made against a lender, it needs an experienced litigation team ready to swiftly and aggressively fight these claims.

The most common types of lender liability claims are: breach of contract and fraud, breach of fiduciary relationship, and inappropriate collateral sales.

Breach of Contract and Fraud

In these lender liability cases the borrower sues, or countersues, the lender for breach of the contract or fraud. The borrowers seek monetary damages for the costs of obtaining a substitute loan and the cost of lost opportunities, and lost profits. These monetary damages are often requested on top of asking the court to find that the contract is void and not enforceable on the part of the lender.

These cases typically arise out of claims that there was no mutual consent for the loan or that the lender used fraud to convince the borrower to enter into the loan.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty

A fiduciary relationship is one where one party owes financial duties to another party and must look after their interests. If the fiduciary breaches their special duty to their other party than can be liable for the damages caused by that breach.

Often borrowers will want to establish that a lender had more than just a lender-borrower relationship, but had a fiduciary duty to the borrower. This opens up the lender to a higher-level of scrutiny of its performance in regard to the buyer.

It is vital that lenders have a skilled legal team that can push back against this type of claim and can establish that the two sides had a typical lender-borrower relationship where everything was done at arms-length.

Inappropriate Collateral Sales

Borrowers often allege that a lender has failed to follow all of the proper procedures when they sell collateral pursuant to a loan default. Most of these cases relate to issues with the technical rules of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

Borrowers use litigation to ask a court to find that the lender’s collateral sale was commercially unreasonable and to order the lender to pay the borrower the fair market value of the collateral.

These claims are highly technical and require a skilled litigation team to properly defend against.

When dealing with lender liability issues, a bank, financial institution, or private lender must be taking proper steps to ensure its practices are fully compliant with the law. It also needs to be ready to aggressively defend against any lender liability claims made by borrowers.

Walsh Banks Law takes pride in our strong reputation representing the interests of national and regional banks, financial institutions, and private lenders in a wide range of cases. Every member of our team has years of lender specific litigation experience. This litigation experience not only makes us the best choice to represent you in state and federal court, it also makes us the best choice to handle your routine and complex transactional matters.

Through our litigation and transactional work, we have seen first-hand the problems created when the negotiations, contract drafting and execution, and transaction documentation are not carefully crafted with the potential for litigation in mind.

We have developed efficient and streamlined processes that allow us to handle even complex financial transactions without needless delays. Our team doesn’t take shortcuts. We are detail-oriented because we understand that every wasted day costs our clients’ money.