Stark & Stark, on behalf of its financial service clients, actively pursues and applies effective legal strategies that make business sense. We represent national, regional and local banks, commercial finance companies, and insurance and bonding companies in New Jersey in commercial lending, litigation, workouts and other transactions. Our financial services team assists clients in matters relating to commercial lending and workouts, often working with the cooperation and assistance of other lawyers in the firm who bring relevant and critical knowledge of related disciplines, such as real estate, environmental, securities, tax, corporate and commercial litigation.

Our loyalty to the financial institutions we represent is evident in the way we serve them. We respond quickly to achieve clients' goals as we recognize that, in a very real sense, time is the equivalent of money for a lender. We approach problems pragmatically, as we know that some circumstances justify an aggressive approach and others require a negotiated solution. When negotiation rather than confrontation is the path chosen by our client, we promote and expedite transactions. We do not hinder them. In all circumstances, we provide our financial services clients with timely and economical services which take into consideration both their legal needs and their practical business concerns.

Clients

Our clients include national, regional and local banks, commercial finance companies, and insurance and bonding companies. Because we have intentionally structured the Financial Services Group to focus on an industry rather than an area of legal service, we work with clients over a broad spectrum of legal disciplines.

Commercial Lending

Stark & Stark represents lenders in a range of transactions, from simple commercial term loans and refinancings to complex commercial real estate projects to asset-based financing. We assist them in:

• Commitment preparation and negotiation
• Development and verification of funding compliance requirements
• Loan structuring
• Preparation and negotiation of participation documents

Representation of our clients in commercial and real estate lending transactions includes examination and counseling in many diverse areas, such as environmental matters, real estate land use approvals and avoidance of lender liability pitfalls.

In most instances, Stark & Stark provides commercial lending clients with prequoted fixed fees at the outset of a new loan transaction. This enables the lender and its borrower to arrive at an "up front" understanding of the cost of the intended transaction.

Bankruptcy and Workouts

Workout and bankruptcy matters include those in which our lender clients are secured by real estate or personally, or, in some instances, are unsecured. Many of these matters and a great deal of related litigation involve issues pertaining to real estate. Often our clients must consider land use, planing, and zoning issues in determining the value of their collateral and the potential legal problems they might encounter in maximizing that value. Just as frequently, even when collateral is other than real estate, environmental liabilities and risks must be carefully considered before a strategy can be conceived and implemented. And inevitably, there are corporate, securities and tax issues related to most bankruptcy issues. We help lenders in:

• Loan origination work and workout counseling, including:
• Counseling clients on structuring loan workout, including avoidance of lender liability and liability for environmental contamination
• Negotiation of loan transactions and workouts
• Documentation of loan transactions and workouts

• Representation of secured and unsecured creditors, including:
• Protecting creditors' rights in bankruptcy proceedings
• Litigation in State and Federal courts, including:
• Suits to enforce creditors' rights against defaulting borrowers and guarantors, such as:
• Mortgage foreclosures
• Replevin actions
• RICO and fraud cases
• Cases under the Uniform Commercial Code, including Articles 3 (negotiable instruments), 4 (bank deposits), 4A (leases), 5 (letters of credit) and 9 (secured transactions)
• Lease litigation
• Fraudulent transfers of assets
• Receivership cases

• Defense of lender liability cases

National, regional and local banks, commercial finance companies, insurance and bonding companies, and others in the financial services industry can rely upon the responsiveness and special commitment of the lawyers at Stark & Stark.