Lending Practice

Lending work has been an integral part of the practice at Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP since the firm's founding in 1912. Through much of the firm's history, we have shared our location with prominent banking institutions. Even today our offices incorporate their old bank vaults, and original tellers' cages adorn the firm's library.

The representation of commercial lenders is one of the firm's most rapidly expanding practice areas, in terms of both volume and the complexity of the transactions involved. Attorneys at the firm have a broad base of experience in dealing with all types of secured and unsecured financings. We represent commercial lenders, banks, trust companies, bank holding companies, non-bank lenders, and governmental agencies, among others. We handle multi-lender syndications, trade finance and asset-based lending deals, leveraged buyouts and stock and asset acquisitions, standard revolving credit and term loans, construction lending, mortgage loans and mortgage loan review, participations, interest rate swaps, ESOP lending, letter of credit and acceptance financings, foreign exchange contracts, and regulatory matters. In addition, our attorneys have worked closely with lenders and clients of the firm to help clients qualify for New Jersey EDA loans in situations where traditional financing is not available.

In any given transaction, the firm's role and cost of our legal services will be dictated by the nature of the financings and the purposes for which the firm has been retained. Most often, our involvement begins with helping to structure the business deal and drafting and negotiating the commitment letter, continues with preparing and negotiating the loan documentation, and proceeds to closing the transaction and attending to the post-closing details, all to adequately and properly secure or protect our lender clients.

Attorneys in the financial transactions group work closely with other attorneys throughout the firm who are experienced in environmental, real estate and land use law, creditors' rights, insolvency and bankruptcy, and tax and trust and estate law. Such interaction among the firm's various areas of expertise assists clients in anticipating and avoiding potential problems and in working through complicated issues.

Our attorneys have also had years of broad experience litigating on behalf of banks, whether in foreclosure suits, collection cases, creditors' rights and bankruptcy matters, and/or in enforcing liens and security interests, and in negotiating and documenting workouts, deed-in-lieu financings and loan restructurings. Our partners and associates are familiar with both the procedural and substantive aspects of such matters. Thus, a partner can ordinarily assume a supervisory and review role, while specific aspect of the case or workout will be assigned to an appropriate secondary person at the right experience level.

Our experience representing borrowers often provides additional benefits to our lending clients. Because the representation of closely held corporations, and tax, trust and estate planning for high net worth clients, comprise a large segment of the firm's business, our attorneys are sensitive to the business needs of such companies and individuals when consummating business deals. Our familiarity with middle market borrowers and high net worth individuals enables us to help facilitate negotiations and provides numerous opportunities for cross-selling and business referrals to the lending community.