Distressed real estate situations are often messy and it is in these situations that a Firm with creative and intelligent lawyers with expertise at each level of the capital stack can really distinguish itself.  We regularly deal with matters that arise in distressed real estate situations, including springing or exploding guaranties, enforcement issues surrounding non-recourse carve-outs, intercreditor, subordination and other co-lender agreements, foreclosure rights, claims and defenses, voluntary foreclosures, receivership proceedings, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, forbearance agreements, mezzanine loan enforcement, and pre-negotiation agreements.  Although there really are innumerable scenarios that fall within the ambit of “distressed real estate”, all of these matters present difficult and complex issues requiring thought, analysis, judgment and often great creativity; accordingly, lawyers possessing these skills can add enormous value. 

Although there is not a hard and fast rule, generally, our practice has fallen into two general areas:  (1) representing parties that are distressed and fighting for survival and (2) representing parties that are attempting to capitalize on the “distressed” nature of other parties. Our distressed real estate expertise includes:

• Workouts and restructurings (cross references to Bankruptcy)

• Bankruptcy and Insolvency Situations

• Recapitalizations

• Distressed Debt Acquisitions

Finally, distressed real estate provides a major showcase for our Pure Play in Real Estate in that it is a chance for our real estate lawyers to work directly with our litigation, insolvency, tax and corporate lawyers to fashion creative legal theories and bring forth innovative transaction structures that in each case provide valuable assistance to our clients.