COMPETENCIES
Asset-Based Lending
Stark attorneys regularly represent national and regional financial institutions in the arrangement, negotiation, and documentation of syndicated and single-lender, asset-based credit facilities.
Through all our offices, from New York to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles, we provide a highly coordinated team of lawyers and paralegals to assist our banking clients in asset-based lending transactions across the United States.
We span industries and products, including specialty lending, equipment finance, aviation, maritime, floor plan financing, and purchase and leaseback financing.
Banking & Finance
We regularly represent clients regarding specialty finance, SBA lending, asset-based lending, commercial lending, custom lending, commercial capital, commercial card, treasury management related matters, wealth management related matters, lease finance, ATM leases, project finance, public finance, syndicated finance transaction and regulatory compliance..
Bankruptcy, Restructuring, & Insolvency
With transactional and litigation strength, Stark attorneys stand ready to assist clients with any and all insolvency situations in federal courts throughout the country. We represent secured and unsecured creditors, agents, bank groups, and senior and mezzanine lenders, in all types of debt restructuring, litigation, and bankruptcy reorganization proceedings.
These include out-of-court bankruptcy-related workouts and forbearance agreements, first-day orders, DIP financing, bankruptcy sales and auctions, challenges to the extent and validity of liens, all forms of contested matters and adversarial proceedings, including fraudulent transfers and preference actions, objections to disclosure statements, and plans of reorganization. Our practice crosses industries, including professional, retail, transportation, real estate, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
Stark lawyers have tried cases and successfully argued on a myriad of bankruptcy issues and numerous other complex matters. Our collaborative approach means we achieve prompt results, knowing that speedy resolution reduces costs, improves efficiency, and preserves value for clients.
Corporate Governance & Securities
With extensive experience in financial services, Stark attorneys are trusted counselors to banking clients that offer services in banking and trusts financial services, bank regulatory, financial services litigation, treasury management, wealth and investment management, corporate properties, small business banking and enterprise functions. When called upon to advise or represent our client in litigation, our attorneys provide counsel and interdisciplinary solutions.
Distressed Real Estate, Creditor's Rights, & Workout
The real estate market creates both challenges and opportunities. From the first hint of trouble for a lender with real estate assets on a watch list, or for an owner who has real estate floundering through workout, bankruptcy, or litigation, Stark provides a highly skilled, integrated team of transactional, bankruptcy and litigation lawyers to take problem real estate assets and turn them into income-producing successes for our banking clients.
Our capabilities include:
Pre-workout Services
For our lender clients we perform pre-workout and pre-litigation collection analyses for troubled loans, loan portfolios, and lender liability avoidance by utilizing the experience of our seasoned real estate practitioners. Our team regularly assists clients in performing rapid due diligence reviews for key components.
Evictions
In connection with our foreclosure practice, the firm has successfully litigated commercial and residential evictions, representing landlords and REO creditors in the following areas: (a) residential leases involving Section 8 tenancies, (b) residential leases involving other subsidized housing issues, (c) commercial leases, (d) non-payment of rent, (e) forfeiture, (f) safety, (g) quiet enjoyment, (h) damage to property, (i) security deposit disputes, (j) holdovers, and (k) criminal activity and criminal convictions. Our substantial eviction experience includes representing landlords in the abandonment of property, eligibility for reduced rent, and actions seeking damages relating to such tenancies.
Foreclosures
On a national basis, Stark has represented banks and other financial services companies in connection with foreclosure matters, both commercial and residential, since the firm’s founding in 2003. As such, it is familiar with the process of quickly moving uncontested residential and commercial foreclosures through judicial and non-judicial processes throughout the country.
We have litigated over many defendants’ efforts to contest, and thereby prolong, the foreclosure process. We are well equipped to suppress defenses and strike answers that are not germane to the foreclosure. We are also experienced in prosecuting so-called “strict” foreclosures, negotiating deeds in lieu of foreclosures and workouts, applying for rent receivers, and executing on absolute assignments of rent without resorting to time-consuming and expensive applications to the court.
We have never delegated the work of lawyers to paralegals, never exposed our clients to liability, reduced our clients’ mortgages to unenforceable mortgage interests, or subjected our clients to adverse publicity. At Stark, we believe it is our mission to exceed client expectations in every case, and this can never be achieved unless we remain loyal to our core values.
Litigation
Whether structuring a transaction or engaged in litigation, our banking clients demand results. You can count on responsive, comprehensive legal support in all forms of disputes, including complex and high-stakes litigation, as well as knowledgeable guidance when negotiating transactions. Stark regularly handles post-judgment collection and replevin actions, mediation and arbitration, commercial litigation, financial services litigation, consumer lending litigation, wealth management litigation, consumer, commercial and small business banking litigation.
From litigation avoidance to the strategic resolution of claims in state and federal courts, administrative and regulatory proceedings, and all forms of alternative dispute resolution, our attorneys have the experience and insight to protect and advance your goals. We don’t view cases in a vacuum, and we never litigate for litigation’s sake. We are accomplished advocates in a courtroom, but when avoiding a trial will produce a better result, our attorneys have the experience and confidence to create the most favorable process and outcome for you.
Stark’s long history of representation of financial institutions has prepared the firm well to stand with its clients in meeting multi-faceted and unprecedented challenges. Because we understand the business, our attorneys are called upon by financial institutions to meet these challenges.
Below is a sampling of the broad array of claims that our financial institution clients face, simply as a result of their day-to-day business activities:
-
Contract disputes
-
Confessions of judgment
-
Loan workout, receivership, and lender liability actions
-
Disputes under Articles 3, 4, and 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code, including fraudulent endorsements and fictitious payees
-
Failed asset securitizations and defaulted syndicated loans
-
Intercreditor disputes, including issues relating to the perfection and priority of security interests, and the interpretation of lien or payment subordination agreements
-
Responding to breach of privacy claims by bank customers
-
Conversion claims relating to consumer and commercial deposit accounts, and application of Nacha rules and regulations.
Banking & Finance
We regularly represent clients regarding specialty finance, SBA lending, asset-based lending, commercial lending, custom lending, commercial capital, commercial card, treasury management related matters, wealth management related matters, lease finance, ATM leases, project finance, public finance, syndicated finance transaction and regulatory compliance..
Banking & Finance
We regularly represent clients regarding specialty finance, SBA lending, asset-based lending, commercial lending, custom lending, commercial capital, commercial card, treasury management related matters, wealth management related matters, lease finance, ATM leases, project finance, public finance, syndicated finance transaction and regulatory compliance..