The firm has "broad capabilities in the litigation aspects of real estate workouts and bankruptcy"
- Legal 500

With the fallout in today’s credit markets constricting financing options and depressing the recent, record-high valuations of real estate, it is essential to have legal counsel possessing the breadth of knowledge and experience to deal effectively with the possibility and reality of non-performing loans and financially-troubled real estate owners as well as the opportunities that may arise to acquire equity or debt positions. 

At Cadwalader, finance, capital markets, real estate, bankruptcy, litigation and tax attorneys work collaboratively to provide complete representation in all facets of real estate workouts, foreclosures and bankruptcies.  Together, they provide clients with a thorough consideration of all options and strategies available in acquiring and/or managing troubled real property projects (held as portfolio loans or inside securitizations) and mortgage and mezzanine loans secured by those real property projects.  They are well situated to analyze the possible risks and rewards on behalf of both traditional and non-traditional lenders and borrowers before investments are made and then to offer total representation to financial institutions, hedge, opportunity and private equity and other investment funds, developers and government agencies alike in real estate workouts, foreclosures and bankruptcies on a national and international scale.

Bank Loans
Cadwalader represents many of the largest international and domestic investment and commercial banks and banking organizations in their capacity as administrative agents, agents or lenders in troubled leveraged finance transactions, in super-priority and other syndicated real estate lending transactions, and in Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession financings.  Adept at interpreting and applying the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, the Bankruptcy Code, other applicable substantive laws, and industry standards, our attorneys efficiently structure workout transactions and negotiate and draft documentation critical for our clients’ protection, including complex operating and financial covenants.  With national and international reputations, our attorneys are well-known to financial market participants and courts around the country and the world, having achieved favorable results in many complex and significant workouts and reorganizations.  Our experience extends to implementing and monitoring these restructuring arrangements throughout all stages -- from origination to collateral recovery or exit financing. 

Mortgage Loans
Strategies to protect rights and maximize options and recoveries in connection with troubled mortgage loans must fit the special circumstances of each case.  Mortgage loans may secure permanent or construction financing.  There may be one lender or several lenders.  Real estate trusts and private or publicly-traded real estate limited partnerships may be involved.  Intercreditor relationships must be analyzed and managed.  Mortgage loans often are administered by servicers or special servicers for numerous constituents from whom they may or may not be required to take direction.  A party’s rights and remedies in respect of these mortgages are impacted by local law.

Cadwalader has represented various parties in a variety of circumstances where a mortgage loan and its individualized attributes are at issue.  We have negotiated the restructuring and advised on the foreclosure of both permanent loans and construction loans, including those in which the construction of the project was incomplete.  We have represented parties where the underlying projects have included office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, industrial facilities, golf courses, apartment buildings, and co-op and condominium complexes.  We have provided this advice for projects located throughout the country.

Mezzanine Loans
With the significant increase in mezzanine real estate loan financings (in many cases, funded simultaneously with mortgage loan financings), Cadwalader attorneys have represented numerous investment funds and financial institutions in the workout and enforcement of troubled mezzanine loans.  Our extensive experience in the origination of mezzanine loans for domestic and foreign parties, in many cases with numerous levels of mezzanine debt and complicated intercreditor arrangements among the mortgage lender and various mezzanine lenders, makes Cadwalader especially well qualified to analyze and evaluate the rights, remedies, and related risks, facing lenders and borrowers with troubled mezzanine loans. 

Bankruptcies
Because bankruptcy is always a possibility with troubled loans, any workout or restructuring strategy has to take into account the implications of the bankruptcy option.  Moreover, it is inevitable that some troubled borrowers end up in bankruptcy.  Our integrated approach to troubled real estate loans does not end when a bankruptcy is filed.  We continue to apply a multi-disciplinary approach even after a Chapter 11 case is commenced.  We have extensive knowledge about single-asset special purpose vehicles that are commonly formed in CMBS mortgage and mezzanine financings, including issues related to potential bankruptcies of such vehicles.  

Litigation
Complementing the transactional aspects of workout and restructuring work, Cadwalader has broad capabilities in the litigation aspects of real estate workouts and bankruptcy, including the contested foreclosures of numerous multi-million dollar mortgages and mezzanine pledges.  In representing secured lenders, we have foreclosed mortgages on virtually every type of property, including office buildings, shopping centers, raw land, hotels, resort communities, condominium projects and cooperatives. 

Tax and Pension
Given the effort expended when structuring transactions to maximize tax and pension-related efficiencies for all parties, it is imperative to take those efficiencies into account when developing a restructuring strategy.  Our attorneys have extensive experience in advising a variety of clients, including real estate partnerships and limited liability companies, on the tax ramifications of workouts, foreclosures and bankruptcies.  Our expertise encompasses international tax, useful in workouts involving restructuring foreign debt or investment of new money by foreign companies, ERISA issues, bankruptcy-related tax matters and REMIC tax issues.