Boston-based international law firm Brown Rudnick has brought together professionals from its structured finance, bankruptcy and corporate restructuring and distressed debt practices to fo
Boston-based international law firm Brown Rudnick has brought together professionals from its structured finance, bankruptcy and corporate restructuring and distressed debt practices to form a structured resolution group.
This interdisciplinary team will analyse the issues surrounding the sub-prime market collapse in an effort to help clients identify and execute on arbitrage and repackaging strategies.
The structured resolution group will make its services available to underwriters and structuring agents, proprietary trading desks, hedge funds, and private investment funds that are positioned on either the buy or sell side of the crisis encompassing sub-prime mortgages, structured investment vehicles and collateralised debt obligations.
Brown Rudnick says the group will bring substantial experience to bear in structuring complex securitizations and extracting value for distressed debt holders at the subordinate levels of the capital structure, and will provide assistance in dissecting deal structures, identifying levers for various tranche holders, and designing and executing repacks. The group will also apply the firm’s expertise in sophisticated insolvency and financial litigation.
Group members include leading practitioners with experience of esoteric asset securitisations such as tobacco fee securitisation, intellectual property securitisation, whole business securitisation and carbon credit aggregation and finance.
Team members also have a background in major bankruptcy reorganisations such as Mirant, Calpine, Metabolife International, Global Crossing, Adelphia Communications and MCI/WorldCom, as well as involvement in European credits such as Eurotunnel, Teksid, Schefenacker, Cheyne Finance, and Northern Rock, and in distressed and second-lien acquisition and trading for leading players in the distressed debt trading markets.
‘The sub-prime mortgage crisis has clearly resulted in a loss of liquidity in the debt markets, and this has affected securitisations of all asset types,’ says Ronald S. Borod, chair of Brown Rudnick’s structured finance group and a member of the structured resolution group.
‘To meet the needs of clients facing a liquidity crisis or searching for value opportunities, we have assembled a team that represents a new collection of skill sets. We will assist clients in analysing structures and identifying the fault lines of the distressed transactions, and in designing and executing strategies for minimising reportable losses, maximising returns and restoring liquidity to the market on an asset-by-asset, deal-by-deal or macro basis.’
Edward Weisfelner, chair of Brown Rudnick’s bankruptcy and finance department and head of its bankruptcy and corporate restructuring practice group, adds: ‘We are filling a significant gap in the marketplace. While other law firms are focused on the upsurge in litigation related to the sub-prime lending crisis, our firm is setting its sights on helping clients to extract value from these distressed situations.’
Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels has offices in the US and Europe offering capabilities in areas that include corporate and securities, taxation law, finance, bankruptcy and corporate restructuring, real estate, intellectual property, complex litigation, government law and strategies, energy and health law.
