Overview
Our Finance and Lending Practice Group handles both transactional issues and banking-related litigation. Our attorneys are recognized as leaders in the field, based on their extensive experience in sophisticated transactions and a solid understanding of our clients' business priorities and objectives. We begin with an ability to provide practical and targeted advice concerning day-to-day issues, and from there move to a recognized ability to structure loan transactions, negotiate agreements, and prepare all necessary documentation.
Our knowledge and experience extends to numerous aspects of corporate finance and banking, including secured lending, asset-based lending, lease finance, leveraged buyout finance, mezzanine and second-lien finance, commercial real estate finance, construction loans for builders and developers, and debt restructuring. Our proficiency with state and federal lending laws and extensive experience in preparing deeds of trust, notes, loan agreements, closing documents, loan renewals, extensions, and other custom documents keeps you compliant, in business and out of litigation.
We also assist with the purchase of distressed properties, such as hotels, on our clients' behalf from start to finish, bidding at foreclosure sales and auctions, then supporting purchases with writs of possession, foreclosures, and eviction proceedings as necessary.
On the litigation end of the finance law spectrum, Stone Pigman handles a wide variety of banking litigation, including the defense of financial institutions in lender liability actions, litigation involving a failed bank merger, prosecution of professional liability suits arising from bank and thrift failures, and defense of directors and officers against shareholder claims. We work on behalf of both lenders and borrowers in disputes arising out of credit transactions, including litigation over collections, guarantees, priority of claims and the enforcement of rights in bankruptcy and receivership. Our experienced bankruptcy team will also assist in your representation, ably negotiating out-of-court settlements and serving as effective advocates for your interests at trial. We also have experience in litigation involving banking insurance and fidelity bond claims.
Some recent examples of finance and lending representations have included:
- Credit Guaranty Litigation. In Baton Rouge, Stone Pigman scored a victory on behalf of a major credit union against the State Department of Agriculture. Our client made a $3.1 million loan to a Louisiana cypress mill and the Department of Agriculture guaranteed the loan. We obtained partial summary judgment enforcing the State's loan guaranty, which was affirmed on appeal.
- Stone Pigman handles foreclosures on numerous commercial properties throughout southeast Louisiana on behalf of a nationally-recognized real estate finance and investment management company that acts as special servicer on several commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) transactions. This representation includes litigating against a commercial debtor's proposed cramdown loan modification as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization and simultaneously representing our client in a federal court suit to collect the loan debt from a guarantor.
- FDIC Representation. Our Finance and Lending Industry Group has represented the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in several major actions brought against former directors and officers of failed financial institutions throughout Louisiana.
