Corporate Trust
Experience. Depth. Breadth. For over 40 years, our Corporate Trust group has partnered with the agency and corporate trust departments of major national banks, trust companies and other financial institutions, counseling them in their roles as indenture trustees, administrative agents, owner trustees, collateral or security agents and escrow agents in a wide variety of performing and defaulted secured and unsecured financing transactions. We routinely work with equity and debt participants across the country and internationally, as well as firms in New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Palo Alto, London and many other cities, in bringing these complex transactions to a successful close, assisting our clients in administering their on-going duties and exercising their rights when defaults occur.
Drawing from the wide range of our experience, we can advise our clients on putting deals together and enforcing them when they fail. Our lawyers provide strategic and practical advice concerning industry and legal developments that may impact our clients’ existing and future business, as well as regulatory compliance and risk management. We also assist with the many transitional issues that arise in the context of acquisitions of corporate trust departments and transaction portfolios. The Corporate Trust group collaborates with Shipman lawyers in other practice areas to offer our clients a cross-disciplinary approach to problem solving.
Transactional and Administration
The transactional team of the Corporate Trust group works closely with our clients in secured and unsecured capital markets and loan agency transactions. We provide practical guidance to financial institutions in their roles as trustee and agent in the origination and on-going administration of all types of financial transactions across all industries and sectors. Our team has particular expertise in investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, syndicated and single-lender loans, project and lease financing, cross-border financing, municipal bonds and other complex financial transactions. Responsive, business-minded, strategic and practical advice is the hallmark of our practice, as our lawyers incorporate our client’s goals and work collaboratively with all stakeholders to advance those goals. Drawing on the default, workout and bankruptcy expertise on the team, our transactional practitioners are able to anticipate issues that might arise in distressed situations and draft solutions at the time the deals are put together to put our clients and their constituencies in the best position in challenging situations.
Defaults, Workouts and Restructuring
The default, workout and bankruptcy team of the Corporate Trust group has decades of experience assisting, advising and guiding trustees and agents in connection with secured and unsecured debt transactions in default and financially distressed situations. From covenant defaults to high profile Chapter 11 cases, we are adept at partnering with our corporate trust clients in complex default situations, to assist them in understanding and applying intricate default provisions in governing documents, working with parties to the deal, and performing their roles at an exceptional level while always protecting their interests. Our lawyers have extensive experience representing trustees in pre-filing negotiations, as members of creditors' committees, in maneuvering financing and developments in bankruptcy from beginning to end, in negotiating plan provisions, in ensuring proper application and distribution of funds, in facilitating out of court restructurings, in tracking compliance with governing documents and in foreclosing on and liquidating collateral, all with the primary goal of helping our clients perform at the highest level of service and working toward the best possible financial outcome. Drawing on the transactional expertise on our team, our default, workout and bankruptcy practitioners understand how the transactions are put together, anticipate issues and craft creative solutions to some of the most complex, time sensitive, high stakes and demanding situations.
