Global market volatility is the new normal. Unpredictable or deteriorating market conditions may lead to special situations that require unconventional thinking and innovative strategies.
Stradley Ronon attorneys have decades of experience marshaling the resources needed to provide creative solutions as we guide our clients through unique investment and business challenges across the full spectrum of capital structures. Our goal is to assist clients in maximizing investment opportunities, value or recovery, limiting potential loss or liability and keeping reputations intact.
Our Capabilities
Stradley Ronon’s special situations group uses our experience and creativity to guide clients through distressed transactions, challenging restructurings and other special situations during which sophisticated and sensitive legal issues arise. Our interdisciplinary group members regularly work in the alternative asset, hedge fund, investment management, lending, private equity, real estate and specialty asset markets and are attuned to the risks inherent in investing in these assets. From cutting-edge capital raises to complex restructurings, our attorneys are skilled at executing these critical transactions expeditiously and cost effectively.
Our special situations team members are pulled from a diverse array of transactional and advisory disciplines spanning securities (including the ’33 Act, the ’34 Act and the ’40 Act);
corporate,
litigation,
finance and restructuring,
bankruptcy, workouts and creditors’ rights,
mergers and acquisitions,
white-collar defense, internal investigations and corporate compliance, SEC and FINRA enforcement,
health care and
insurance. This group works seamlessly to quickly size up the situation and develop effective business and legal strategies to resolve challenging problems or capitalize on opportunities.
Our Special Situations Experience
Our special situations group has worked with lenders and investors working in a wide range of industries, including consumers goods, transportation, financial services, health care and professional services, among others, in the areas listed below:
- Acquisition and disposition of distressed assets
- Acquisition financing and distressed debt investing:
- Challenged debt and equity investments
- Debt financings
- Ancillary issues that impact distressed asset investors:
- Credit default swaps
- Derivatives
- Interest rate derivatives
- Licensing and other regulatory matters
- Repos and securities lending programs
- Tax
- Bankruptcy and workout matters:
- Bankruptcy and workout counseling
- Bankruptcy financing
- Claim purchases
- §363 plan of reorganization sales and acquisition of assets, including stalking horse bids
- Debt restructuring
- Debtor/creditor rights and remedies
- Pre-bankruptcy forbearance arrangements
- Dispute resolution
- Board/management disputes
- Defending against lender liability claims and professional liability claims
- Formation and structuring of investment vehicles and funds that acquire distressed assets, including hedge and private equity funds
- Fraud investigations
- The Investment Company Act of 1940, The Securities Act of 1933 and The Securities Exchange Act of 1934
- Partner disputes
- SEC and FINRA enforcement inquiries, internal investigations and examinations
- Side pocket investments, illiquid or troubled debt and equity investments
- Strategies to maximize return on distressed assets:
- Bankruptcy
- Contractual rights and remedies
- Litigation
- Restructuring distressed equity and debt transactions
- Structuring and documenting new debt financings and equity investments, including secured and unsecured financings, single-lender and syndicated loans, unitranche facilities, second lien, mezzanine and subordinated facilities, structured finance; and cross-border transactions
- Unique, asset-specific issues and risks:
- Debt securities (ABS, RMBS, CMBS, CDOs)
- Distressed businesses
- Investor redemptions
- Liquidating existing investments
- Loans (mortgage loans, commercial loans)
- Real estate
Our Special Situations Clients
- Buyers and sellers of distressed businesses
- Corporate debtors
- Directors and officers in claims by competitors, shareholders and regulators
- Financial institutions
- Hedge funds and hedge fund advisers
- Investors and partners in financially troubled companies
- Limited liability companies
- Municipalities and government agencies
- Nonprofit and religious organizations
- Partnerships including individuals partners in partnership disputes
- Professionals, including accountants, architects, physicians and lawyers, as well as hospitals and financial institutions, in defending against professional liability claims
- Private equity funds and private equity firms, including leveraged buyouts
- Venture capital firms, including counseling regarding mezzanine financing of leveraged buy-outs or distressed debt, and strategies for exit